Arajah
by Bolmung LK
Summary: During a routine bath a maid catches Judar's attention, before he knows it Sinbad, Hakuryuu, Hakuei, and Kougyoku are all trying to win his affections. Things for the magi begin to spiral out of his control when he realizes that he is actually in love with all of them, but how and why? Why is there a 5th Magi that Al-Thamen wants Judar to marry? Yaoi/Het Multiple Pairings, OOC, AU
1. Chapter 1

Members of the Ren royal family had long ago noticed certain aspects of their Magi's personality, such as how his mood shifts with the weather and seasons. Three of the Ren family members in particular also notice that their _oh-so-masculine_ oracle indeed had a feminine side; a side that blushed at the sight of fruits and flowers. Hakuryuu made it a point to always have bowls of fruit, especially those infamous peaches, at all turns of the castle corners. Kougyoku ensured that the gardens remained well maintained and extravagant in color. Hakuei did her best to light incense in the main corridors of the special palace to make sure the scent of happiness always reached the enigma's nose. These interesting details did not slip by the grand Magi's attention, but he couldn't help but ponder about it all.

Why were they doing it all? For him? Absolute nonsense, what fool believed that Judar would like these things in the first place? The Magi shook his black hair feverishly as he passed by the main dining hall. He saw nothing but bowls of fresh fruit, perfectly arranged flower vases, and sticks of incense burning. He did his best to deny that the entire room looked like a comfy paradise, but somewhere in the recesses of his mind he knew it was just a way to console him whilst he remained imprisoned in his own personal hell. He slowly approached one of the incense burners and snuffed it out with a scowl.

'_No amount of ass kissing can make me feel __**at home **__in this hellhole…_' his mind said to an imaginary Hakuei that he envisioned just for the sake of scolding her without actually having to break her heart. He wholly understood that those three were, for whatever goddamn reason, obsessed with making him happy. He turned sharply on his heels and made his way back to his personal room, but not before snatching a peach off of one of the bowls of course.

Once inside his bedroom he threw the peach pit out his open window where it landed in the courtyard with the pile of other pits. Some were sprouting, some were rotting. Either way a peach tree grew or the dead pits fertilized the soil. No one **dared **ever enter Judar's courtyard, not even the gardeners. It was his personal wild jungle full of fruit trees; mostly peach of course, exotic flowers, a wooden bench, and a small waterfall pond that was fed from the pipes running beneath his bedroom and out into lake beside the castle.

**This **was Judar's paradise, one in which not even Al-Thamen or Gyoukuen was permitted to enter. He would often sleep in one of the trees to escape the constant knocking on his door at all hours of the noon. For now though, Judar was content with stripping himself of his clothing and tossing them carelessly into a basket in the corner of his room and sliding into his bathtub. Like clockwork, every morning on the tenth hour his bath was ran for him. He allowed his long braid to be undone with the simple loosening of the bottom tie. He untwisted the ebony tresses and untied the top ribbon. Running his hands through his hair he reveled in the feeling of the softness. When his hands reached his scalp he frowned; it was oily. He entered his hot bath and sat down to relax in the feeling of the water warmly wrapping itself around him like a hug on a cold day.

He submerged his head and stroked his hair beneath the waves of bubbles. When he surfaced he heard the familiar sound of his bedroom door opening, a few scuffling noises, then proceeded by the door closing again; the maids had taken his dirty laundry away and replaced them with his new clean clothes. He knew every sound this palace made and why. The occasional loud bang of pots in the kitchen could be heard from the dining hall, the sound of the maids sweeping the halls, to the sound of cooking fires crackling all rang out daily. He didn't need to question why someone had entered his private quarters without knocking, he knew their routine and they knew his. They dare not glance at him in his bathtub, which wasn't even visible from his bedroom door anyways, they knew better than to even slightly urk their kingdom's precious Magi.

A mischievous grin spread across his face, it was urking time.

He pulled on a string attached to the wall and a distinct bell sound rang throughout the halls. Within mere seconds and maid appeared behind the paravent wall by his bathtub and a tiny voice shuddered out to him.

"Y-yes, my lord?" the frail woman said meekly. Well this was interesting, Judar didn't recognize her voice at all. She must be new.

Perfect!

"I want the prettiest maid on duty today to come massage me." He ordered with his trademark tone.

That's when the new maid did something that no other castle servant had ever done before and it honestly confused Judar more than upset him. She wordlessly entered the bathroom and appeared behind him, without his permission no less, and kneeled down beside him. Without a shred of fear, or so Judar thought was a fearless act, reached out and placed her hands on his shoulders. As she began rubbing from behind him he realized he never even got to see her face. He was tempted to either let her continue her rather skilled massage, or flip out in a fit of rage. Her thumbs hit a sore spot on the back of his neck and he decided to allow her to continue, but he'd be sure to punish her later never the less.

Oh but wait, it was supposed to be urking time anyways!

"You do realize what you've done, right?" he said almost seductively. She did not stop massaging him, but she gave a noise of confusion. "You've broken four castle rules, all in a matter of about thirty seconds. That's impressive for a newbie!" Certainly not the compliment she had been hoping for.

He felt her small hands twitch and pause. For a couple seconds they were both entirely silent, waiting for the other to speak. Finally he broke the silence by letting out a noise of exhaustion. "First of all, you entered without knocking, secondly you didn't fulfill my request of finding the prettiest maid, thirdly you entered the bath without my permission, and lastly…." He trailed off as he hands began to rub on his once more. "You **touched **my body without my permi-"

"You rang the bell, that was all the consent I needed to enter." She said with her tiny voice.

Judar's eyes opened wide, his mouth readied a retort, but she continued speaking.

"You asked for the prettiest, and I am indeed the prettiest one here. There was no need to even look for another maid, I am the one you requested."

The audacity of this bitch!

He laughed slightly before throwing his head back to look up into her eyes. Her violet eyes brimming with a strangely immature bravery looked down at him as her wavy auburn hair fell down around her shoulders and onto his cheeks. He blinked up at her curiously.

"Lastly," she began as his crimson eyes burned into her own eyes dangerously. "You ordered a massage; I did not deny you that which you desired. I am massaging you."

Even though Judar loathed being wrong, especially proven wrong, he had a better idea than frivolously fretting about the details of her disobedience. A much, much more fun idea.

"So you won't deny any request I make?" he grinned wickedly up at her.

"None." She said without hesitation.

The game was on. A game that was quite literally impossible for him to lose, or so he thought.

He leaned all the way back into the tub with his head on the edge, cutting off her access to his neck and shoulders. "Clean me." He ordered with mild enthusiasm. Something in the back of her mind nagged at her that his request was sexual in nature, but alas, it mattered not.

An order was an order.

She pushed her sleeves up and grabbed one of the many bottles of soap scattered about the room and titled it into her open palm. "That's hair conditioner." He said flatly. With a blush of embarrassment, she set the bottle down and reached for a pink bottle, but not before he said "That's also hair conditioner." Her hand moved on to a green bottle, "also conditioner….". Her heart sank, this wasn't going well. He watched her eyes scan each bottle dumbly, he couldn't believe the palace actually employed someone so…..stupid. He watched her face twist from confusion to fear and he rolled his eyes.

As much as he enjoyed humiliating her, he didn't want to sit in that tub all day and get pruny. He grabbed a bottle and tossed it at her chest then fell to the floor. "Use that." He ordered and with shaky hands she picked it up and poured a generous amount into her palm. With less than enthusiastic hands she touched him yet again, this time starting with his chest. He watched her small hands covered in orange goop reach out and slather his chest. As almost gross as it seemed, her hands were quite skilled at what she was doing. The water level reached above his chest line so she had a difficult time getting the soap to actually rub on his abdomen. She settled for using just diluted soapy water and her bare hands to reach lower and lower until she reached his pelvis where she stopped.

He watched curiously as she retracted her hands from the water and applied more soap to them. Silently she moved to the other end of the tub and instinctively he pulled a leg out of the water and let her wash it. Her hands moved in patterns all the way up his thigh and stopping before reaching his nether region. He lifted an eyebrow in both amusement and curiosity, would she just skip over the erotic parts of his body? Did she really think she could get away with that? He lifted the other leg for her and smirked as she washed his dirty foot.

"Do you just like….not wear shoes?" she questioned as she scrubbed harshly.

For what was the shortest second in human history, Judar felt embarrassed and curled the toes of the foot she was working on, but he easily recovered and snorted at her. "They're uncomfortable and I can fucking fly, why would I bother?"

"You're the first member of royalty I've ever heard of that disliked shoes of all things." She commented as her hands rubbed their way up to his upper thigh and came back down to his knee. As her hands made one last pass of his thigh, she was within reaching range. He reach out and grabbed her by the back of her collar and pulled her into the bathtub with him. With a shriek of surprise she tumbled in on top of him and straddled herself between his open legs. He pressed her face into his chest and leered down at her with something only slightly less malicious than hellfire.

Her chin pressed into his chest between his soapy pecks harshly as she looked up in horror at his beautiful scowl. "Is that a problem?" he asked darkly and she shook her head 'no'. "Then why are you making such insulting comments on my body?"

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked out as she flailed slightly, her arm trapped beneath her between his torso and her own with her hand dangling between his legs. His, thankfully flaccid, penis pressed into the back of her hand; a detail that neither of them did not notice. "I just thought every inch of you was silky soft, so your feet surprised me was all!" It was her honest answer actually, and Judar sensed her sincerity and released her. She slowly climbed out of the tub, thankful that her hand was no longer touching his crotch.

"You forgot my arms and back." He commented calmly as he closed his eyes.

Exhaustedly she looked down at him. She was soaked and honestly just plain tired of him. "Should I also wash your asscrack and foreskin for you?" she said sarcastically as she rung out the front of her robe and sleeves as best she could without taking her clothes off.

"Bitch I'll make you wipe my ass every time I take a shit if you keep giving me attitude." He said without so much as opening his eyes to see her expression.

"You're actually very attractive, so please don't ruin the image I have of you in my head by showing me **that** side of you." She commented as she continued wringing her pants out.

'_**That** side of me?' _his mind pondered, but he came up with no retort.

She sat down beside him and poured more soap into her hands and began trailing her fingers down his arm to his wrist. He refused to open his eyes at this point, as it might be seen as an acknowledgement of some sort. Acknowledgement for what? He didn't know, he just knew he didn't want her to have his acknowledgment. Servants don't deserve that. Her hands slipped under his arm and washed underneath. She half wondered if he was ticklish at all, but after a few gentle touches she assumed not because he didn't so much as flinch. She moved back down his arm towards his wrist where she paused.

Then it happened, her curiosity got the better of her. Her soapy hand glided over the top of his hand and her fingers laced between his. She used both hands to massage his palm and top of hand. Her hands froze in that position with her fingers entwined in his and something akin to warmth kindled inside of her. Not that this man was kind to her in the slightest or that she'd developed Stockholm syndrome, but she couldn't help but notice the fact that his fingers wrapped around hers in return as if he enjoyed such contact with her. It made her wonder what really went on in his head.

_'Does he order others to touch him so intimately because he secretly desires a loving touch?' _she shook the wishful thinking from her mind when he opened his burning ruby eyes to glare at her cautiously, signaling that she was perhaps crossing a line of some sort. She let go of his hand and moved to his other arm, this time with less...intimacy. When she finished with his arm she stood up and grabbed a large water bowl from the other side of the room.

She moved behind him and much to his surprise she pushed her hands under his head and lifted him up enough to pull all of his hair out of the tub. He obliged and kept his eyes closed as her hand passed over his forehead and pulled his bangs back with the rest of his hair. As she used a water basin to let his hair soak in she looked around at all the bottles, wondering which one was shampoo. She knew finding conditioner would be absolutely no issue, but shampoo was another story….

It was over thirty seconds of no motion or noise before his curiosity piqued and he opened his eyes. He expected to see her staring down at him lustfully, but this was not the case. Instead she was looking off into the distance on a shelf adjacent to the tub that was stocked with many different bottles of product.

"All of the shampoo is on the shelf directly behind you, just pick one." He ordered and her head whipped around to see dozens of bottles in different sizes and colors. She picked a small pink bottle and sniffed it.

"Nope." She mumbled as she put it back on the shelf and grabbed another. Judar watched in mild awe as she put several more bottles back before settling on a small red bottle. "Yes!" she smiled as she poured some into her hands and begin working it through his wet hair. His eyes remained fixated on hers and she did her best to avoid eye contact with those hypnotic crimson eyes. She'd never seen a red eyed person before, only heard of their rare beauty, and she wasn't about to let the first one she met set her heart ablaze. Since he wouldn't close his eyes she decided to close hers instead.

He had enough hair to keep her busy for quite a while and so she decided to sing softly as she worked. "_Il est la beauté, il est la grâce, mais ses pieds sont vraiment sales."_ He found her voice to be beautiful, but he didn't understand a word she said. "_Ses cheveux sont si doux, comme la noirceur filée dans la soie, mais ses pieds sont vraiment sales." _Perplexed he listened intently, ears burning to know the lyrics. _"__Je l'aimerais s'il n'était pas un énorme abruti et si ses pieds n'étaient pas si sales.__"_

"What are you singing?" he asked with childlike wonder.

"It's French, don't worry about it." She said innocently. "Just an old French folk song."

She continued her so-called lullaby. _"Il aime que j'essuie son cul pour lui. C'est un enfant sans défense qui a les pieds très sales."_

'_It's beautiful…' _he thought as his mind drifted off tiredly as he enjoyed the feeling of her nails gently scraping his scalp. He awoke only when she began rinsing the suds from his hear, not realizing that he'd actually fallen asleep for a brief moment. He groggily opened his eyes to see her smiling to herself as she applied an oily conditioner to his hair. He closed his eyes again and enjoyed the feeling of those skillful hands on his head.

As she moved hair away from his ear she noticed several holes and wondered if he wore jewelry. She had heard of the black Magi before from the other staff, but never saw him in person. Her hands went back to his spun silken hair and worked a few tangles out of the miles of threads. She found herself oddly enjoying playing with his hair, even though he was a massive jerk she had enjoyed this moment in which his mouth and eyes were shut.

_'Perhaps if he were a softer, kinder person he would be...be so...'_ her thoughts halted when his ruby eyes opened and looked up at her. _'...lovely...'_

"Are you done yet? I'm bored now." he said flatly and she stood up.

"If you want to wash your ass yourself, then yes."

He frowned at her. "You didn't wash my back, that's the hardest part. Honestly the only part I ever have anyone else wash for me." he confessed.

"Wait..." her eyebrow lifted at him curiously, returning the intrigued look. "Am I the first maid you've made wash you before?"

He cackled loudly. "Of course not!" he sneered at her and she looked away embarrassed. "Did you think you were special for a minute there? How cute!" he said loudly before sitting up and pulling his hair away from the water as to not get it soapy again. "Just finish your job and you can go." he said softer than before and exposed his backside to her.

She grabbed the soap bottle and dumped more than enough into her hands and began scrubbing his back harshly. It wasn't the rhythmic massage she was giving before and he realized he'd either hurt her feelings or just straight pissed her off, either way he felt victorious. The harsh backscratching actually felt nice or he'd have reprimanded her. When she was done she stood up and left without a word. He rinsed himself off alone and exited the bath.

Something inside of him was playing tug of war with his thoughts, he was far more lenient on her than previous maids, so why did he have even this slight hint of remorse? She had been the one to trespass upon him and break the rules, he was in the right to treat her harshly. But she was new and likely didn't know all of the rules yet, like only senior maids answer the Magi's bell. Maybe he could have simply informed her instead of being cruel? Utter nonsense, he must be having heatstroke from being in the hot bath too long. Damn maid took too long to do her job! He would normally have gone and complained to the headmaster of servants, but his noon nap was calling him and his body felt heavy from all the heat.

**BLK: For those wanting a translation of the maid's song, I know you can't copy/paste from FFN. So here's the translation. "He is beauty, he is grace, but his feet are really dirty. His hair is so soft, like darkness spun into silk, but his feet are really dirty. I would love him if he weren't such a huge jerk and if his feet weren't so dirty. He likes me to wipe his ass for him. He is a helpless child with really dirty feet."**


	2. Chapter 2

Judar awoke to the thick scent of incense burning nearby. He knew immediately what came next. A loud knock on his door followed by the sickeningly sweet voice of Hakuei calling out to him.

"Judar-chan, you missed lunch. Are you going to miss dinner too?" the princess called out to him and he rose from his bed, still nude from his morning bath. He wrapped his sheet around himself and trudged over to the door and opened it to reveal his mostly naked form to the princess.

Hakuei blushed deeply, but she was not alarmed. This was standard protocol behavior for the high priest and she honestly didn't expect him to act differently simply because a princess was in his presence. The incense burner she was holding couldn't mask the overpowering scent of all the soap Judar had been bathed in and she took a deep breath before smiling at the man's unpainted face.

"You aren't wearing any make up, that means you haven't shown your face to anyone today." she giggled.

"I swear, if that maid comes back I'll have her imprisoned..." he groaned out tiredly, his muscles sore from the harsh massage.

It was then that the princess noticed the red marks all over his body and she bit her lower lip and squeaked slightly. They were scratches of finger nails, likely from romping around in the sheets with a violent woman. Just what had this maid been doing to her beautiful Judar?! Images of dominatrixes and rough sex played through her mind and she squirmed where she stood. Judar watched curiously her flail slightly as if struggling with some sort of internal turmoil. She knew it was not uncommon for the Magi to **_play _**with the maids and visiting royals and their teenaged daughters, but to see the love-scratches in person was driving her mad. Judar was no stranger to a stranger's body, but she longed for him to familiarize himself with her body too. Maintaining her purity for marriage was not something she was interested in. Besides, how "tainted" are you truly when it was the Magi who touched you? If anything you were blessed beyond that of being an ordinary virgin in her eyes.

"Y-you know Judar-chan..." she began as she tried to avert her gaze from his exposed flesh. "I can do that too..." she said in almost a whisper.

He was entirely too tired to translate her confusing message, and honestly he didn't care to. He waved his hand dismissively at her and changed the topic. "Have you seen that new maid around here anywhere?" he asked.

"New maid?" she questioned and pondered. "I don't think so, I don't really know many of the maids honestly, I don't try to recognize their faces unless they're my staff specifically."

"I think the headmaster of servants was pulling someone a favor when he hired a dipshit of a maid and put her on my hall. She's terrible at giving baths!" he sneered.

_'So it was rough sex in the bath, I see!' _Hakuei thought jealously as her face burned even brighter.

This was her chance. "I'll take care of it for you, I'll have her fired at once." she said confidently as he nodded and turned to close his door. "Wait!" she begged and pressed her hand on the door to keep it from sliding closed. He looked at her with slight wonder. "Next time..." she mumbled softly.

He cocked a brow at her, one hand holding up the sheet, the other playing tug of war with the door with her. "Next time?" he questioned.

"Next time I'll be the one to bathe you!" she said then turned quickly and nearly ran for her life leaving him disheveled and utterly baffled.

**"Huh!?"** she heard him screech as she reached the end of the hall and rounded the corner to the dining hall.

As she reached her seat at the long table her heart refused to stop slamming in her chest. This wasn't the first time she's proposed something sexual in nature to Judar. She offered to sleep next to him on cold winter nights and even tried to hold him when he was injured. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get her heart to steady itself, she placed a stiff hand over her chest and took a deep breath. These bizarre actions did not escape the sights of Kougyoku who was already sitting down the table from her. Normally they had an unofficial assigned seating, but the redhead moved to sit beside her cousin who was so suddenly in cardiac arrest.

"Is everything alright Hakuei?" the cheery girl asked as she began playing with one of the tulips in the vase before her.

"Do you know of a new maid here in the palace?" Hakuei asked, ignoring her original question. She continued to pant to catch her breath, which was a little alarming to the other princess to say the least.

"Not that I know of, then again I did hear that one of the maids recently came back from maternity leave. Does that count?" Kougyoku asked deep in thought as she continued to watch her cousin grip at the robe over her chest.

"If you hear of a new maid in the palace, send her to me." Hakuei said with a tone akin to anger, something very uncommon of the fair and cheery Hakuei.

"Ok, I'll bite, what's going on that's got **you **so upset?" Kougyoku asked worriedly as she plucked the tulip from the vase and pulled it up to her nose.

Hakuei's eyes darted around the room, only two others were present, Kouen and Koumei, but they were engaged in their own chit chat at the opposite end of the massive dining hall. The dark haired princess leaned in close to the ginger princess and whispered her secrets. "There's a new maid in the castle and she's _**already **_had her way with _**our **_Judar-chan!" she hissed. Kougyoku shrieked as she gasped, her face burned bright red with both jealousy and rage. Normally maids don't get to even lay eyes upon the beautiful Magi for over a year after employment.

The sharp sound caught not only the ears of Kouen and Koumei at the other end of the room, but also Hakuryuu who was just around the corner. He paused just behind the gossiping princesses to listen in. "She left so many red marks all over him, I bet that nasty maid was far too rough with his perfect skin!" Hakuei said through grit teeth and Kougyoku puffed out her cheeks.

"Oh poor Judar-chan!" Kougyoku whined softly. "We must help him! We'll treat him nicely and softly!" Hakuryuu knew instantly that the two princesses were scheming of another way to get in bed with the high priest and he wanted in on it.

The two girls were wrapped in their heated debate about how to console their beloved Magi when Kouen approached and cleared his throat. "Everything alright?" They froze and looked up, praying that the older man hadn't heard a word of their plotting.

"Oh everything is fine! Just the usual morning gossip from the maids!" Hakuei giggled fakely, Kouen saw right through it, as did Hakuryuu, but he had heard everything already anyways.

_'A maid violated Judar?' _Hakuryuu thought with a stuff lower lip. He didn't like the sound of that at all.

"Oh? Do tell" Kouen smirked as he sat down directly across from the girls, eager to know the truth. Hakuei cringed on the inside, unsure of how to handle the situation.

"Well, Chigusa came back from maternity leave recently!" Kougyoku said as if rescuing her cousin.

"Go on." Kouen urged and Hakuryuu took a seat next to Hakuei who was now sandwiched between her two closest allies on the topic. "Surely that can't be all that made you girls shriek like banshees?"

That all too knowing tone in the older prince's voice sent shivers down their spines, he knew something juicy was up and the trio hadn't told him yet that there was a secret race on to win the Magi's heart. Hakuryuu took his chances. "One of the maids upset Judar this morning and we're trying to figure out which one it was, nothing too exciting, Judar is easily upset when it comes to commoners."

Kouen's eyes shifted from the nervous smiles of Kougyoku and Hakuei before wandering over to the very calm and relaxed Hakuryuu. Satisfied with the unphazed look in the young prince's eyes he nodded in understanding. "Find out what they did and bring them to me, I'll handle it directly. I won't let anything else upset our Magi. God only knows what will happen to us if he has _**another **_meltdown." Kouen said as he stood up and returned to the confused Koumei across the room.

Koumei's expression told Kouen he needed to inform him. "A maid pissed Judar off, it will be handled, no worries." Kouen said as he took his seat beside his brother.

"Today of all days too..." Koumei sighed out. "The French Empress won't be happy if Judar is uncooperative."

"Especially after all of the effort and resources she's put into this deal." Kouen groaned out. "Hopefully this event won't bleed into tomorrow's events. Koumei nodded nervously, that would indeed be very bad for the Kou Empire.

Across the long table the trio of lovebirds continued their chatter. Hakuryuu pursed his lips at the thought of his brother's words. "_**Another **_meltdown? When was the first one?"

"Well he tends to flip out pretty easily over small things, maybe he's just referring to those small outbursts?" Kougyoku suggested with a shrug.

"So what's the real scoop on why Judar is upset right now?" he asked knowing his two allies of stalking Judar would want him to know.

"A new maid gave Judar-chan some _love-scratches _this morning and roughed him all up!" Kougyoku huffed out. "Hakuei says his skin was all red and blotchy and he smelled like girly soap!"

Hakuei nodded with a noise of agreement almost eagerly. "And he was exhausted, even after his noon nap!" she added.

Hakuryuu raised his eyebrows and dropped his head slightly. "That's it? He had rough sex and you two are flipping out? How is this news?"

"She violated him!" Hakuei hissed. "It was so bad he asked me to find her and fire her! He was so upset he even mentioned imprisoning her!"

Now **that **was juicier than Hakuryuu had expected. "Well that changes everything. Just how rough was the sex to do that to a Magi?"

"That's what we wanna know!" Kougyoku and Hakuei said in unison loudly, once again catching the attention of the two older princes across the dining hall. Kouen was determined to not let this random event ruin the upcoming ceremony, that maid was to be dealt with and swiftly. If not to silence the issue, but to appease the Magi so he was in good spirits tomorrow at least.

As the dinner party started and the royals flooded in to eat, Judar included, there was a not-so-secret witch hunt going on with the staff. Every member of the staff was grilled and interrogated on who this new maid was, the poor headmaster of servants was reamed thoroughly. The Emperor at the head of the table was approached by a member of Al-Thamen who whispered a very short message into his ear. The Emperor nodded and dismissed the man who disappeared almost like smoke. Every single person in the room took notice of the exchange and the Emperor's new expression. The food had been eaten and the sake half-drunk when the monarch rose from his seat and motioned for Kouen and Gyokuen to follow him.

They were lead into a backroom where the headmaster of servants and several members of Al-Thamen awaited them. The headmaster was sitting in a chair trembling and nearly in tears. "My king!" he cried out as the Emperor entered the room. "In my thirty seven years of serving the Ren family..." the man sank to his knees out of his chair. "I have never once let a new maid anywhere near the Master! In the last fifteen years that the high priest has been our oracle I haven't allowed a single maid, butler, cook, gardener, or beautician of ill-repute or otherwise near his highness!"

The Emperor saw the trembling in the man's hands and understood his sentiments. "Never the less, you hired someone so ill-mannered."

"I have not hired a new maid in the last month! I have never hired a maid with red hair before either!" the man pleaded and even Gyokuen's head tilted curiously.

"If she's not someone you hired, how did she get inside?" the Empress questioned with her arms crossed. "Who is she?"

"Kouen," the aging man turned to his son. "Bring me the high priest."

The first prince nodded and returned to the dining hall where the infamous trio were attempting to engage in conversation with his primary target. They pretty much encircled the poor Magi trying to get details out of him.

"Are you wearing a traditional robe to hide the scratches?" Kougyoku asked as she wrapped her arms around Judar's right arm and snuggled him softly.

"It looks good on you, but I like your Middle-Eastern clothes much better!" Hakuei said as she latched onto his other arm and looked up at him with bright blue eyes sparkling.

Hakuryuu stood there envious of how the girls could do such things to Judar and have it be seen as perfectly normal, but if he did it oh-no, he's a weirdo! He instead settled for getting awkwardly close and leaning his face dangerously close to the Magi's and fanning his face with his hot breath as he spoke, "If you're ever sick of all these females pawing at you there's a hot spring not far from the palace, I could take you so you can bathe in peace, _with me_." This sent Judar stumbling backwards out of the girls' grasp and thrashing a bit.

Kouen watching in mild amusement as Judar kept backing away from them with an unreadable expression and making swatting hand motions symbolizing that he did not wish to speak on the matter. Kouen approached them and inserted himself between the Magi and the other royals.

"High priest, your presence is requested at his majesty's side." the prince said in a very formal tone.

"Is this about the stupid maid thing?" He rolled his eyes and made a small grunt of disgust.

"Yes," Kouen said flatly. "and the sooner we get this whole thing over with the better."

"Well I'm over it!" Judar shrugged and crossed his arms defiantly. "I don't care what you do with her, just keep her away from me."

Kouen's eyes bounced from the reluctant Magi to the highly alert royals then back to Judar's smoldering eyes. "We can't find her." was all Kouen said before Judar's expression dropped. "She's apparently not even employed by our staff, we have no idea who she is."

Judar froze somewhat, half mortified half intrigued. "You have my curiosity." No longer resistant to speaking with the Emperor, Judar followed Kouen into the back room.

Al-Thamen did a bow as the black Magi entered the room. Within seconds Gyokuen had placed a 'loving' hand on his clothed shoulder and squeezed lightly as if she were reassuring him. Inwardly, Judar was straight fucking disgusted and felt he needed another shower, he'd considered calling that crazy maid back to un-fuck his now fucked up shoulder. Outwardly he gave her nothing more than a small nod of acceptance. He was, for once, insanely grateful that he was wearing a robe as it acted as a barrier between his porcelain skin and that evil witch's hand of dread and misery. Her hand slid down from his shoulder to his elbow where it linger far, **far** longer than he ever wanted this woman to touch him. Once again, he was exponentially grateful he was wearing a robe, a long-sleeved robe. Judar prided himself on being a sociopath and a wildly unpredictable and destructive person, but Gyokuen was a whole other breed of psychotic kookfest that he wouldn't touch with a then foot pole. Bitch was straight whack in his opinion.

After she **finally** let go of him and moved a tolerable distance away from him the Emperor approached and spoke. "High priest, what exactly did this maid look like other than red hair?"

Judar thought for a moment, not about the maid or the bath, but about the bizarre urgency of the situation. Eerily he eyed the Emperor up and down before turning his eyes to the members of Al-Thamen flooding the room. _'Whatever is going on here likely has little to do with the maid and more about me specifically. I just can't shake the feeling that something else is happening here. Knowing that with Gyokuen and Al-Thamen are here tells me that this situation is much more dire than a simple mishap with a new maid.' _

"Your highness?" an Al-Thamen member asked curiously. "It's alright, no need to be afraid to speak freely here."

"Alright, I'm intrigued." Judar said as he crossed his arms and let his hands disappear under the cloth of his long sleeves, something he'd secretly missed about robes. "What's actually happening here? Why is this stupid maid such a big deal that the Emperor, Empress, and half the monkeys of Al-Thamen are trying to console me? You all act like I've been raped or some shit."

With a deep inhale and a swift step closer to the Magi, the Emperor grabbed Judar's arm and pushed the sleeve up quickly before the mage could even react. His fair skin was tarnished with red patches and nail marks, but nothing permanent or even remotely serious to be called an 'injury'. Judar retracted his arm back into his sleeve where he rubbed it gently. Very confused and now on high alert, Judar backed away from the aging man.

"Are you sure you weren't violated?" the monarch asked.

"Do I act like I've been violated?" he retorted sarcastically.

"You skin says otherwise." the king pointed to Judar's hidden arm.

Judar looked back to Kouen who could only give him a shake of the head and a shrug. "If anything **I'm** the one who violated **her**." Judar confessed.

"Did you force yourself on her?" Gyokuen asked almost excitedly. Judar's stomach was ready to purge itself at the thought of this woman lusting for him.

"Hell no!" Judar hissed. "As if some lowly maid is worthy of my attention that much!"

"Then what do you mean?" the Emperor asked impatiently.

"Look, here's all that happened. I rang my bell, a new maid came in and started bathing me without my permission. I did my little stupid routine of harassing her and threatening to have her fired for rule breaking, things got a little rough, I pulled her in the bath with me, she clawed me a bit, I made her wash my hair to humiliate her, then I kicked her out. That's all that happened. Why is this suddenly such a huge ordeal that Al-Fucking-Thamen is riding my ass with sympathy?!" Judar said in one mouthful.

"That's **all **that happened? Nothing else _sick_?" Gyokuen asked as if expecting more action. Again, Judar's stomach joined the olympics and won gold medals.

"Nothing but petty details left to tell you. Wanna talk about how I threatened to make her wipe my ass after I shit too? Does that excite you enough?" Judar said with disgust at the scowling Empress. "She threatened to wash my foreskin for me, does that turn you on?"

"Priest!" the Emperor shouted. "You're crossing a line that even you shouldn't be crossing."

Judar looked into the Emperor's eyes defiantly. "Then tell your wife to stop giving me those weird looks and asking me those weird questions!"

The Emperor turned back to his wife and gave her a look and she turned her head away from him. The man turned back to Judar and sighed deeply, realizing that his wife was putting the Magi in a worse mood than the mystery maid was. "Judar, just one more question and all of this goes away. What did she look like other than red hair?" After a moment of deja vu in which the king remembered already asking that question and the Magi so dared to ignore.

"Long wavy red hair, violet eyes, very short and petite, tiny hands, and an annoyingly high pitched voice." Judar said and everyone else just sort of shrugged and motioned ready to leave the meeting. "Oh, and she speaks French." he added. Everyone froze before turning back to Judar slowly. Everyone had slack jaws and looks of disbelief. **Now **Judar was burning with curiosity.

"Are you absolutely positive it was French?" Kouen asked as he grabbed Judar by the shoulders and spun him around. Something the prince had never done to him before.

Judar nodded dumbly. "She sang it well too."

"Oh no!"  
"Oh shit..."  
"Are you kidding me?"

Members of Al-Thamen were swearing up and down as the Emperor took a seat and rubbed his temples. Judar was excused while the rest of the members and the royals handled the boiling situation at hand. Blazing with more and more and more concern as he was ushered out of the room and back to the dining hall where only Hakuryuu was as he picked boredly at his dessert. The younger prince's eyes opened wide at Judar's disheveled appearance, mostly just his frazzled expression.

"Are you ok?" Hakkuryuu bolted out of his seat to his friend's side. "You look like you've been through the gulag."

"Gee, thanks..." Judar sighed out. "Just more weird bullshit with that maid, turns out she doesn't really work here and it freaked everyone else out."

"That's insane, are you sure you should be sleeping alone tonight?" Hakuryuu asked innocently. Judar looked over and have him a look of almost fear. "You never know when she'll come back! Just saying..."

Thoughtfully, Judar paused and turned very sternly towards his prince. "Hakuryuu, are you..." he hesitated briefly as he eyed him. "Are you trying to seduce me too?"

Hakuryuu didn't answer, he just remained motionless and his gaze averted to the floor. A bright blush grew on his cheeks as he raised his gaze back to the beautiful Magi.

"Are you like **in love **with me or something?" Judar asked as more of an accusation than a question.

With his last ounce of courage, Hakuryuu answered. "And if I am? Would you have me?"

A glimmer of hope in the prince's heart prayed for at least an acceptance, but was ultimately shattered when the Magi simply walked away and let loose a screech worthy of theatrics. Hakuryuu chased after him and grabbed him by the upper arm from behind. "Judar, please?" was all he could think to say.

Judar's screech increased in volume as he broke free of the prince's grasp and began sprinting down the hall, gaining the attention of not only the servants, but of Hakuei and Kougyoku as well. Judar locked himself in his bedroom and threw himself on his bed. Wide-eyed he stared up at the ceiling wanting to scream again, instead he settled for suffocating himself with his pillow over his face and biting into it as he muffled his complaints into the fluffy fabric. He stopped his tirade when he heard voices outside his bedroom door and crept over to it to hear properly.

Outside his bedroom door the trio gathered, Hakuryuu with a mortified expression. "That wasn't how I wanted to confess to him..."

"You confessed!?" Hakuei stammered, unsure if she was angry or feeling sorry for him.

"He ran screaming if that tells you how well it went." the prince whimpered out as the stinging of tears threatened his eyes.

"I'm sure it just took him off guard, you know, surprised him is all. With this whole maid scenario it's kind of a bad time is all." Kougyoku did her best to console him. "Why did you choose to confess now, I thought we all agreed that none of us would say anything about our feelings to him until after the French courting?"

_'**They're all in love with me!?**_' Judar's mind reeled and he felt dizzy. _'Wait, what's this French courting thing?'_

"I didn't plan it, he point-blank asked me if I was in love with him! What was I supposed to do? Lie and forever ruin my chances?" he said as a tear finally rolled down his cheek. "He literally _ran screaming _away from me!"

They all could hear the heartbreak in his voice. A pang of guilt stabbed at Judar's heart, perhaps he could have handled it better, but Kougyoku was right, it was more or less the timing than the actually confession itself. To be fair, Judar had thought of men sexually before in the past, but never worked up the nerve to act on it, and Hakuryuu wouldn't be a bad first experience by any means. He took note to console the young prince afterward this whole mess blew over. His focus was now set on that weird French thing, it might explain the French maid impostor!

A loud thud on the other side of his room grabbed his attention and he turned to see the unthinkable. **SHE **was sitting in his window sill that lead to **HIS **courtyard with her legs inside the room, merrily munching on a peach; a peach clearly stolen from one of his trees. That audacious red hair braided in one long strand down her back to mimic his own hair and those brave purple haze eyes that just pierced into his soul; taunting him to come near her. With a waggle of her finger of her free hand he turned his scorching red eyes on her and took fearless steps towards her until he was almost touching her bare feet that dangled in through the window. He took note of her new outfit which was that akin to member of Western royalty. She was an odd sight to behold, royal dress, no shoes, dirty feet, sitting in a thin window sill, eating a dripping messy peach, and her hair was a mangled mess in that unprofessionally tangled braid.

"I take it you're not a maid." was all he said, unsure if he hated her for her audacity, or admired her for her foolish bravery.

"Nope!" she said in her high pitched cheery voice then took an obnoxiously large bite of her-erm, his- peach. She had trouble reading the now bored expression on his face. She lifted the peach up in his direction. As if unspoken words were exchanged just through their eyes, he kept his eyes locked on hers as he leaned down and took a bite from the delicious fruit. He dared fancy the idea that it tasted better than usual since she'd taken a bite out of it first.

"So I found this interesting article of clothing in your wardrobe." she said as she tossed the peach pit behind herself out the window, wiped her hands on her expensive dress, and pulled out his small black and gold crop top that he usually worse daily. "Either it shrunk in the wash or you wear this slutty little get up. Please tell me it's the latter!"

He couldn't not crack a wide grin. "Every day, I have several more almost just like it." he grabbed it from her and eyed her up and down, taking a second time to notice her dirty, bare feet. "Odd that you commented on **my **feet, yet here you are mimicking me..."

"After you fell asleep I tried being you for a few hours, got kind of caught up in the moment when exploring your courtyard over there." he nodded her head behind her toward the courtyard. "Had a little but of fun breaking as many of your rules as possible."

"I gotta know at this point," he started and she began swaying her legs back and forth childishly. "What's your goal here? Are you **trying **to get executed or something? Trying to trigger me into a fit of rage for a fight? What will you do when I finally decide I've had enough of your nonsense and off your head?"

She recognized a hollow threat when she heard one, not that she doubted that the Kou Empire's Magi has a reputation for death and destruction, but she had a plan. "Because that would start a war with the French Empire." she said with confidence. Words that most certainly caught his attention and made his expression shift from cocky to intrigued.

"Like an empire would start a war for the likes of you!" he chuckled deeply at her.

"Well considering they sent me here as a bargaining chip for an alliance, I think they definitely would start a war over me." she said with a smirk.

"As if!" he laughed even harder.

"I'm Arajah, and my empire sent me here to court you into a marriage. I had to see the real you for myself, and I think I've seen just about enough to have my answer." she slid off of the window sill and closed the gap between them, her nose brushing against his delicately, almost teasingly, her lips dangerously close to his. He didn't back down, he didn't move an inch away from her. He allowed her closeness for the sake of satisfying his frothing curiosity of why this bitch thought she could just do whatever she wanted.

_'Why is she acting so different from when she bathed me to now? Why would Kou allow something like her to court **me**? Why not a prince?'_

"Are you their princess or something?" he asked as his hot breath patted her lips like a ghost. She enjoyed the scent of his breath greatly as he spoke.

She whispered onto his lips as they brushed together ever so gently, not even a full kiss, just a feather-like brushing. Judar didn't need to speak French to know **exactly **what she said.

"Non, je suis leur Magi."


	3. Chapter 3

_'Wait, **what**!?' _Judar's heart nearly stopped.

As her lips captured his bottom lip softly, something in him twisted and churned. The feeling wasn't unpleasant by any means, but it left him feeling very out of character. What nagged at him more than her lips pressing delicately onto his own was that those tiny hands that already ravished him once before were now on the sides of his head. Her fingers wove themselves into his hair affectionately and he did nothing to stop her advances. He was entirely motionless, not even returning the kiss. He was content with just watching her actions as her words processed in his mind.

_'If she's really a Magi, why is her hair so short and messy? Why haven't I ever heard of her before? Why would the Kou Empire care to marry me to another Magi anyways? What purpose does that even serve? Is there something about Magi mating that I don't know about? Why not Scheherazade? The Reim Empire is way bigger than the French Empire, it would make more sense. None of this adds up...' _Judar's mind raced as his heart rate began to pick up. His eyes remained open for the entire exchange, but her eyes were closed and she looked almost at peace he dared imagine.

Her hands feverishly wandered from his head down to his braid where she felt the puffy hair balloons one by one. She reveled in the feeling of his perfect hair, she was entirely too envious of his perfect braid to notice that his hands had finally moved to grab her own braid. He felt how tangled it was and how the braids were uneven and sloppily done. Apparently the woman knows nothing about how to be a proper Magi, he was tempted to teach her, but that would require not only effort but an enormous amount of _care _on his end. He didn't actually care, not in the slightest.

So then, why the hell was he untying her hair and trying to comb it with his fingers? Why wasn't he making her remove her filthy mouth from him? Damn her.

To her this moment felt very odd, but peaceful. His lips weren't reciprocating the kiss back at all, but she still felt like he was somehow melting into her. It was true, Judar wasn't just tolerating the presence of her lips pressing onto his own, somewhere deep inside he sort of enjoyed the soft contact. Somewhere very **deep **inside, very much lower than he had originally noticed. He did his best to silence such nonsense, his body was acting on its own. She had a sneaking suspicion that he may have become aroused when he sighed out deeply through his nose when her tongue licked out at his lips. She snaked her arms around his neck and forced the rest of her body up against him, trying to press her hips into his to see if she could feel anything downstairs that might be _out of sorts_.

To her dismay he was wearing a thick robe and couldn't discern if what she was feeling was a tie from the robe's waistline or if that was indeed the roaring dragon beneath the Earth's surface. Judar wasn't sure how to react to her sudden force of impact, but he settled on finally parting his lips for her and letting her tongue inside. His inner demon wanted to bite it off for fun, but something else in the back of his mind had a better idea. As he finished rebraiding her hair properly his hands went down to the lace in the back of her bodice. With an eager tug the ribbon came undone and she realized what he was doing; he was undressing her.

As their tongues licked at one another slowly she felt the fever of lust pooling inside of her, a feeling she was absolutely no stranger to. Yet even so, why did this lust feel different from the other times she had been seduced before? It was heavier and much more mind-controlling than any other time. She half wondered if he had used a magic spell on her or if she was more infatuated with him than she thought. She swore to herself she wouldn't fall for his blood red eyes or his foul attitude, but he was too delicious not to at least **taste**. Like taking a sip from the devil's cup, his lips were poisoned with a natural aphrodisiac of some sort. One touch and your body belongs to him.

A wicked grin grew on her lips that were so excitedly ravaging his. Her braid that only reached the middle of her back was yanked on and her lips torn apart from his own for the first time in the last few minutes. Her head was being pulled backwards by his left hand while his right hand finished the last lace on her corset and her entire wardrobe fell to the floor to reveal her entirely nude body. He couldn't say he disliked that she wasn't wearing any under garments, but those were indeed the funnest parts of disrobing a woman. As he looked her exposed form up and down he saw small marks everywhere, scars. Likely from battle, which told him she either fought really tough opponents or she was extremely weak and got hit a lot.

"You're a lot of fun when you don't talk." she said with a wicked grin. Her head's position was still distorted by the way he was pulling her braid down.

"You'd be a lot more fun if you knew how to be a **real **Magi." he said tepidly which made her grin drop. What the hell did he mean by that?

"If it involves me getting on my knees I'm well aware how-" She was cut off mid-sentence when he let go of her hair and slapped his hand over her mouth to silence her.

"Magi don't wear frilly princess dresses." he said sharply then released her mouth. What was left of her arousal was entirely destroyed by his remarks.

Now she stood awkwardly naked in front of him, fully exposed and vulnerable. He turned away from her and went to his closet where he began rummaging around for a moment before pulling out a white and black elaborate outfit. It was definitely Middle-Eastern in design with black dragons on a white fabric. He tossed it to her and she caught it with ease. As she held it up for inspection she noticed that the midsection was a shimmering translucent white and the chest part looked like it was shaped for breasts. A peculiar thought struck her, was he a cross dresser? Why did he own something like this? She cocked her head to the side to give him a knowing look of smugness. He'd have scowled back at her if he had noticed her pompous stare, but he was too busy going through a jewelry box looking for a specific piece to match the outfit.

He turned around to see her already wearing it. The long sleeves and fabric between the knees and ankles were all also see-through. The sleeves and ankle cuffs connected to the middle finger and middle toe through a gold ring, covering the tops of the hands and feet. She admired herself in his full-length mirror by his bathroom door, she looked fantastic in it. He approached her and clasped a gold choker around her neck that almost resembled his own. He looked her up and down for a moment, something was missing, something vital; vital to being a true Magi. She crossed her arms and gave him an impatient look and a cocky smirk, as if awaiting appraisal. There it was!

"That smugass grin looks good on you." he finally complimented, the first time he'd ever done so. She blushed, hard.

"M-merci..." she whispered out, reverting back to her shyness that he'd first met her as. For the shortest moment he genuinely thought she was cute. He had already acknowledged her basic beauty as an attractive woman, but as of right this moment, his mind confessed that she was specifically 'cute' in **his** way.

She watched absentmindedly as he stripped himself of his own robe and revealed his fully nude form to her in return. _Not that she hadn't already seen him naked and touched most of his body or anything like that_. She never did get to see his behind though, she wondered if it would be round like a woman's, or firm and sculpted like a man's. To her delight it was mixture of both and she giggled silently as she continued to watch him get dressed in his usual black and gold outfit.

_"Il a un si beau cul, et peut-être qu'il est juste un peu plus gentil que je ne le pensais. Mais ses pieds sont toujours si sales. C'est bon, les miens sont sales aussi. Ensemble nous aurons les pieds sales."_

He turned his head as he finished putting his top on. He'd never admit it to her face, but he actually really liked her singing voice. The smallest of blushes crept up on his cheeks as he looked back at her serene face. "Mind singing that in a language I can understand?"

She smiled wide and shook her head 'no'.

"It's perverted, isn't it?" he asked as he crossed his arms and gave her a knowing look. "I recognize some of the words from when I bathed. You keep saying the same line over and over again, what is it?"

She couldn't hold back anymore as she let out a genuine giggle of excitement, there was no way in hell she'd tell him what she sang. He gave her a scowling glare as he took a step closer to her and she backed up while still laughing. He took another step closer with a burning look in his eyes, he didn't look angry, but her certainly wasn't amused. She ceased her fit of laughter when he closed the gap and had her pressed against the wall with his chest. Once again he was alarmingly close to her face as he hovered a few inches above her. She may be short, but he wasn't very tall himself. Another wave of lust rose in her abdomen, half wondering if he redressed her just to undress her again. Somewhere inside she wasn't sure if she actually wanted him to make love to her or not, but she wouldn't mind another kiss if he was willing.

"Are you really a Magi?" he asked with the almost a pleading tone, as if begging it to be true.

"Yes." she said simply. "Would you like me less if I weren't?"

He could see the almost-hurt in her lavender eyes and hear it in her tiny voice. "No." And then his lips were upon hers without a second more hesitation. This kiss lasted only a few short seconds, but it melted her from the inside out.

"Do you enjoy being a Magi?" she asked with a shaky breath.

"Sometimes." he said shortly before pressing his lips on hers again for another chaste kiss. "Do you?" he whispered onto her lips.

"I hate it." she admitted and looked up at him with what he would call 'puppy dog eyes'. "I'm a slave, not a being of worship like I should be."

He loved hearing her say that she deserved worship just for being a Magi, it made a couple sparks in him ignite. "I too am a slave, but one day I'll change that." he admitted and backed away from her. Not once in his life had he ever referred to himself in such a way, not to anyone, not even to himself.

"How?" she asked with a glimmer of hope in her tone.

He thought for a moment before a question tugged at his mind. "Do you have a king's candidate?"

She shook her head 'no' harshly, her braid bouncing around as she did. "I summoned a dungeon a few years ago, but so far no one has conquered it."

"What's the Djinn's name?" he asked curiously.

"Ashenzai." she said with her small voice.

Judar's eyes opened wide, **this **little girl is the one who summoned the great Ashenzai's dungeon!? He had assumed it was Yunan or Scheherazade! "Well no wonder no one has conquered it yet!" he shouted in shock, her eyes widened at his sudden burst of energy. "Ashenzai's dungeon was meant for king's candidates who **already **have a metal vessel!" It was her turn to get excited and energetic as she flailed about thinking of what to say, but he beat her to it. "Why didn't you just summon another dungeon? Ashenzai is way too frickin' hard for a normal person to handle. How the bloody hell did you even summon that dungeon as your first one anyways?"

She puffed out her cheeks that burned a scarlet red. "I put all my energy into it, I wanted it to be a good dungeon so France would have a good vessel user! I didn't know there were advanced dungeons!" she rambled out in distress. He groaned, this girl had no idea how to use her powers properly, and he was determined to turn her into a _real Magi_.

_'Why do I care so damn much!?' _his mind roared, but he ignored it.

"Not to change the subject, but I'm curious just how much you know." he started as he walked to the window and waved for her to follow. He climbed through the window and she followed behind him. "Why are they trying to coerce us to get married?" he asked as they walked off the wooden porch and into his courtyard.

"Those Al-Thamen guys think that when two Magi have a child it'll create an even stronger Magi and allow an additional Magi to exist outside of the original three limitation, and they're not wrong about the latter."

"How do you know what Al-Thamen knows before I do?" he froze and gave her a concerned expression.

"I too was raised by a small division of Al-Thamen, and I was briefed on the subject before coming to Kou. I'm surprised you weren't." she said as she reached up to snag and apple off a tree. He was wordless, speechless. Blankly he watched her eat one of his precious fruits as he stared at her in wonder.

"And you're okay with that arrangement?" he asked. "Specifically about **us**?"

Her big purple eyes looked up at him with a mouthful of apple then looked back to the ground before swallowing. "I don't know."

"Al-Thamen and the stupid ass king never tell me anything until right as it happens." he spat out as he turned away from her and headed towards a peach tree. "They probably have the wedding planned and booked if I know them. As if I'd ever agree to get married or be a breeding guinea pig!"

She sensed his resentment, not just from his tone, but from the way he snatched a peach off of a tree and stuffed a bite into his mouth. She watched as he distanced himself away from her in the large courtyard. There were plenty of placed to hide if you really didn't want to be found. She looked all around to see some of the trees actually had trinkets and baubles hung from them. One tree had what looked like a bundle of blankets in it and she wondered if he ever slept up there. She smiled at the cute notion and looked back at him as he stared off into the distance of his multi-acre courtyard. More of a forest than a courtyard in her opinion. It was entirely encircled by castle walls, this making it hidden from the outside world, but none of the walls had windows. No one could spy on him from inside the castle, his bedroom was the only wall with a window. You'd have to climb to the roof to catch a glimpse of this ethereal paradise. She felt so at peace here earlier when he was asleep, but now it felt like a prison.

"So how the hell are there five Magi now, anyways?" he asked as he dropped his peach pit into a bush. "Are you the product of two other Magi?" As soon as those words left his mouth he knew he had to be wrong. Aladdin was too young to reproduce, especially to have a child older than himself no less. Yunan and Scheherazade were both blondes and Arajah had red hair. Nothing seemed to fit.

"Aladdin is from Alma Torran, he's the son of Solomon and Sheba. That's what Al-Thamen told me." she said as she approached him and Judar's eyes widened dangerously. That little twerp was more special that him!? "It apparently only takes one Magi to make another, but Al-Thamen wants to know if two Magi make a bigger difference. Besides, there are actually six Magi right now. Me, you, Yunan, Scheherazade, Aladdin, and one more locked away in Al-Thamen's grasp somewhere." she spoke with such intensity that Judar had a hard time recognizing her at the moment. Not that he'd known her even a full day yet, but still, this was **not **the shy maid from this morning or the flirtatious slut breaking into his bedroom less than an hour ago.

"I am the daughter of the Magi that they have locked up somewhere." she said in almost pure rage. "The original three Magi will be born regardless of the circumstances, but once a Magi reproduces the chances of another being born rises exponentially. I am the youngest of seven children from their experiments. The only one born a Magi."

Judar's blood boiled. "Why was I kidnapped at birth when they already had a Magi then!?"

"Just for this very purpose. To mate with me." she said coldly. "Obviously I shouldn't be mated with our own father, so I was sold off to France as a way of them buying their Empire, much like they did with you for the Kou empire. At one point they considered finding Yunan to court him to me, but he's impossible to find when he doesn't want to be found."

"How did you find all of this out? Aren't you pissed off?" he asked aggressively.

"Of course I'm pissed!" she screeched and threw her apple core off into the open field. "Everything about my life, my very existence, is a miserable nightmare!" Her hands went to her face as tears rolled down them.

"Don't you live a life of luxury and pampering though? Isn't that how Magi are treated?" he asked calmly as he approached her. The constant worship, pampering, and pandering were the only things keeping him from betraying Kou and Al-Thamen entirely.

"You're luckier than me." she said as she removed her hands to see his unhappy expression. "Don't look at me like that, I've seen you completely naked, not a mark on you!"

"Well thanks to you I have loads of scratches-...Do they **abuse **you?" his anger faded into what was akin to _sympathy_. Something he never truly felt before, except perhaps for breaking Hakuryuu's heart earlier. She remained silent and pulled her hair over her shoulder, her short braid that was tied neatly thanks to his handiwork told him a sad story.

"When I was fourteen the first prince of France told me he loved me, I let him have my body. When the Empress found out she shaved my head bald as punishment." As she spoke Judar's heart dropped into his gut, that was probably the worst way to punish Magi. The very thought punched him in the guy like a boulder. "I spent the next year ashamed of myself, unable to look in a mirror or show my face anywhere, and the last four years of my life I've tried everything to make it grow faster, but I feel like a fake Magi no matter what I do. I don't have a king's candidate, I've only raised one lousy dungeon, my hair is short, my body is marred, and now I'm just useful for making babies. I don't feel like a glorious Magi at all, I feel like-"

Judar grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug as she cried into his chest. "They never hit me, not once. They most certainly would never shave my head, I'd probably kill them and then myself!"

She wasn't sure if his words were supposed to be comforting on any level, but the fact that he made at least the smallest attempt to console her made her giddy for some reason.

"Then again, I **am **trapped here against my will." he started. "They murdered my parents, my entire village, the day I was born and kidnapped me. I didn't know the truth until recently." As he spoke her arms wrapped around his back and she kept her face firmly in his chest. A risky thought passed through his mind that alarmed himself.

_'I don't think I'd mind holding her like this forever.'_

Judar didn't know if he was okay with the whole proper-courting thing, but he didn't mind a fling with another person of similarity. Not that she was his equal or anything, but a small part of him felt like he'd found the last surviving female of his species. He never even daydreamed of getting married, it just wasn't his thing, but maybe just having another Magi around to empathize with once in a while would be nice. Not that he'd ever fall in love with her, but she was truly the first person he could find any sort of common ground with. Another thought hit him and he pulled her away back to arm's length.

"I have an idea!" he grinned down at her as she dried her tears. "I get flooded with secret fanmail from another king. He's been begging for me to join him." he said enthusiastically as he grabbed her by the hand and drug her back through his window into his room. He rummaged through a box full of letters and pulled out an envelope with a recent date mark and handed it to her. She just looked at it and looked back to him, then back to the letter and frowned. His eyebrow quirked in interest, how could she not take that kind of offer?

"Uhm...Now might be a good time to tell you..." she hesitated in embarrassment.

Then it dawned on him. The soap bottles.

"You can't read." he gasped out softly. He immediately felt like an asshole for throwing the bottle of soap at her like she was stupid. Well, okay, she was stupid, she can't even read. Tragic, but dumb as hell in his opinion. She shivered as tears threatened to pour from her eyes again. She didn't want her first day with the other Magi to end with such humiliation. She crammed the letter back at him and ran for his door and threw it open. As she ran down the hall Judar chose not to give chase. Instead he sat down at his desk and pulled out parchment and his quill and went to work.

_'I won't let Al-Thamen have their way, not with me or any other Magi ever again!' _Were his motives selfish or out of concern for another being? He wasn't entirely sure, nor did he care in that infuriating moment. _'Who the hell acquires a damn **Magi **then abuses and neglects them!? A blasphemy against the natural order of the world!'_

Arajah had come to a halt when she realized she was now out in the open, wearing the black Magi's clothes, **and **amidst the presence of Kou royalty. She was lost, she didn't know this part of the palace at all and she would certainly catch hell for trespassing. Curiously, Hakuei leered at the girl. Wearing one of Judar's old outfits? Red hair? The situation was too suspicious to not investigate.

"Are you okay miss?" Hakuei asked sweetly, masking her true intentions.

"Oh uhm, yes I'm fine." she lied as she averted her eyes. "I'm just lost is all."

"Are you the maid who bathed the high priest this morning?" the princess asked, no longer sweet in tone. Arajah sensed that terrifying shift in persona from saint to Satan and the Magi tensed up in response.

"I am not a maid, I am a guest of honor from the French empire." she replied boldly, now refusing to not seem confrontational. As a Magi she had to appear confidant to her allies, she reminded herself that weakness would not be tolerated in the land of Kou.

Hakuei's face changed from that of suspicious to very surprised. "Are you...part of the French courting event that's going on tomorrow?" she asked praying that she was wrong. Her insides churned like sludge.

"Yes, I am here to court the Kou Magi into marriage."

Exactly as Hakuei had feared.


	4. Chapter 4

_"Yo, Stupid King!_

_I'll work out a deal with you. You still want a Magi? There's a Magi girl currently at the Kou palace, she needs a new home. Yeah, apparently there's a fifth Magi now, well six, but he's not relevant. This chick really needs a new kingdom, France is no good, they treat their Magi like dirt. A crime against Magimanity really. Come crash the party while the French losers are still in town and I'll throw her your way, in exchange quit sending me love letters, got it?_

_Yours insincerely, the Magi you wish you could have, but can't."_

_Magimanity?_ Judar's imagination was a little childish at times. But the humor was lost on him, his mind was more interested in the emergence of a fifth **and **sixth Magi. Was Judar pulling his leg? Surely this was a trap to start a war with Sindria so he could have a good brawl. The king was tempted to crumble the letter up and toss it in the bin when Ja'far, who had been looming over his shoulder, snatched it from him. The younger man inspected it closely and furrowed his brow.

"He can't **seriously **think we'd fall for this, can he?" Ja'far smirked.

Sinbad leaned his elbow on the table and rested his chin on the top of the back of his hand and smiled widely. "Why not find out?"

"**Excuse me!?**" Ja'far coughed out loudly. "Judar will do anything to get us to attack Kou!"

"I know, but this?" Sinbad grabbed the letter back and inspected it. "A couple things strike me as too imaginative to be false. Why bother trying to mention a sixth Magi on top of the fifth one? It's overkill."

Ja'far's face dropped as he pondered the theory.

"Also, why would Judar even care about this Magi girl? Why involve the French empire?" Sinbad frowned slightly. "It's too..._creative_ for him."

"It's also extremely out of character for him." the general pointed out. "Sinbad, it's a **trap**!"

"A trap he's finally interested me into walking into just to see what exactly lies ahead." the king said he stood up and retrieved something from across the room and sat back down. "If he's lying then so what? We don't attack Kou, we just pretend we're there to trying opening a trade market with them. If he's telling the truth then we get a Magi finally."

Ja'far's head almost split open. "That's **not **how that will go down and you know it! Do you remember how many times we desperately tried to open a trade agreement with Kou and Judar incinerated us or froze our ships solid?!"

"Oh I do." Sinbad said confidently as he opened his parchment set and began to scribble a reply. Using magic to send letters was an easy ordeal, well worth the exchange if it meant he could heart from his star-crossed lover again.

_"Dear Bellydancer of my Dreams,_

_I have no real reason to think that there is another Magi, let alone that you'd send her my way so freely. If in fact she does exist, which she doesn't, what proof do you have? Why should I risk my people's lives just to help you? It's obvious this is just another ruse to get your war. I know you can teleport, put this on her and send her to me directly and I'll cooperate with any demands you might have. _

_With Lust, Your Future King_

_P.S. What are you wearing right now?"_

Ja'far was used to the king's infatuation and perverse thoughts of the black Magi, a dangerous trait for Sindria's ruler to possess. A pure soul lusting for a demon was bad chemistry, but it was one of the things that made Sinbad so good at his job. Sinbad chuckled lightly as he enclosed a small ring in the envelope and with an immense force of magic the letter vanished. The general took a deep breath and prayed that Judar didn't send another ice wave when he arrived with the girl, **if **she even existed at all.

Judar's face cringed when he opened the letter, but he accepted the ring and inspected it. He remembered it from a few years ago and he knew exactly what Sinbad was asking for. The Magi rose from his seat and pocketed the ring. A wicked grin spread across his face. With great ease Judar surged with magoi and without a trace he disappeared.

"Three..." Sinbad counted and Ja'far looked at him curiously.

"Two..." he said again, his grin growing knowingly.

A rather odd popping noise could be heard just outside Sinbad's office window and he smirked. "One!"

Judar poked his head through the open window and locked eyes with the maddening king who was biting his lower lip in anticipation. "You were a second too early this time." the man said as he watched the Magi float in through the window elegantly and slip the ring over his ring finger. Ja'far tensed up tenfold and stood close to his king in case it became necessary to defend him. Judar was a wild rabid animal when he didn't get exactly what he wanted.

"You made this ring the perfect size to only fit on my ring finger, didn't you?" Judar asked with his hands on his exposed hips.

"Well, it **was **made for you, but I was hoping you'd put it on the girl and send her directly to me." the king said as he stood and stepped closer to the younger man and put his hand under his chin to lift his head up to him. "But I like this approach much better."

"Well, you did want to see what I was wearing, it'd be awfully rude to just mail you back my underwear and deny you my presence." the Magi said in mock seduction. To be honest, he really wasn't sure how he felt about the man lusting for him, but it was fun as hell to taunt him. Just another toy to play with when he was bored.

Sinbad grabbed him with one arm by the waist and the other took Judar's left hand that had the ring on it. Hot lips were pressed onto the top of Judar's hand that was held captive. Judar's free hand was placed atop the king's hand that held his waist. Ja'far's nerves were sent into overdrive, at that close range Judar could do anything to his beloved king. Even with the magoi-suppressing ring on, Judar was still an active threat and a force of nature. If he couldn't kill you with magic or brute force, he'd kill you with words.

"I knew that last line would get you to come visit me!" Sinbad grinned as he leaned in and tried to capture the Magi's lips, but Judar turned his head and the kiss was planted on his neck instead. A shiver of raw lust went down Judar's spine and into his groin. This wasn't the first time the pervert-king had made him feel such a wild way. As Sinbad's mouth lingered on the dark one's neck he caught a whiff of something interesting; flowers. Not a scent normally associated with the black Magi. Normally his incubus smelled of peaches or some other kind of sweet fruit. "Change your shampoo again I see?"

"A rather overzealous maid had her way with me this morning while bathing me, so my engine is all out of power today, sorry." Judar grinned up at him hoping that would cut short the intimacy of his visit and put them back on track for the real topic at hand.

The plan backfired in the worst possible way when Sinbad ordered Ja'far to leave. Hesitantly the general left, but lingered outside the closed door just in case. As soon as he heard the latch of the door the king threw Judar on his back on the desk, knocking almost everything off onto the floor, and pinned his hands above his head. He was unnerved by the ruthless tactics, but he'd been through the routine before. Each time, each meeting, Judar managed to not allow the king that which he desired most. Never once had the king's lips managed to strike gold upon the dark Magi's. The incubus had always been too swift for the king to land a move. Sinbad inhaled sharply as he eyed the distressed expression of his illustrious toy.

"Do you treat Ja'far like this too?" Judar asked, genuinely curious.

"He doesn't have your hips." was all the man said as he laid a kiss at the base of Judar's neck in the very front, right beneath the golden choker. He paused to look up into smoldering hellfire in his eyes. "Or your eyes." A couple more wet kisses made their way down his chest and to his sternum before his demon made a gurgling noise and spat a huge wad of saliva into the king's face. Sinbad looked up to see the proud and snickering Magi cackling down at him. "Oh you are **dirty**!" the king said then wiped his face on the squirming man's crop top.

Disgusted, Judar lashed out, "Hey! I just put these clothes on!"

"Don't worry, that won't be the dirtiest thing getting on your clothes today." Sinbad laughed from deep within his chest as he shifted the younger man's wrists so that they were in his left hand's grasp. The king's right hand grabbed the struggling fiend by the knee and pulled him down so that they were hip to hip with him between his legs. Judar felt a monster press against his ass harshly and a few more papers and pens fell from the desk as he tried to twist to the side to escape. Putting on the ring was a bad idea, but a necessary tool for hiding from Al-Thamen. It would be worse news for him if that evil organization knew he were in Sindria than if Sinbad had his way with him, a tricky situation to be in for sure. That damn ring that rendered him powerless was also the only thing protecting him from the wrath of his true captors. If his magoi was able to flow freely they could pinpoint his location, getting caught would mean another agonizing punishment; being confined to the castle ground for a solid month. Not something he was going to let happen, he'd have to fight his way out the old fashioned way this time.

Sinbad leaned down to try another attempt at those porcelain lips that he thirsted for. How long had he been dreaming of just one simple taste of his favorite monster. His right hand grabbed the contorting man by the chin and at long last pressed his burning lips against his prey. Judar ceased his squirming as soon as the heavy contact was made, unsure if the feeling building inside of him was lust, disgust, or just curiosity. He settled down when the idiot king lifted his lips to whisper sweet nothings to him. _"You'll never have to go back as long as you wear that ring. You can be here forever, free and safe. I can protect you, you won't ever have to fight for your freedom again." _

**Not **what Judar wanted to hear. As he went to retort another kiss landed upon his now parted lips. An eager tongue made its way inside his mouth and took control of him. The demon Magi bucked his hips up in a feeble attempt to lift the man off of him, but was only met with the grinding sensation of the king's erection against his own throbbing self. True panic set in, this was no longer game of cat and mouse. Sinbad's free hand began roaming the trembling man's abs and chest gently, Judar shuddered at the soft touches. Since his hands were both bound together he tried to use his right hand to grab at the ring to slip it off, but couldn't get the right angle. Sinbad's hips started a slow, but harsh, grind against him which sent socks of pleasure through Judar's body. Involuntarily, the Magi's hips pushed back, for what reason he'll never know. Something primal inside of him, something caged, demanded freedom, but not to escape, just to _release_.

"Clearly there's _some _energy left in you, you liar." the king scoffed out with a breathy laugh. "I see you trying to get that ring off!" the cocky king said as he once again separated his hands. This, however, removed the king's ability to touch the panting Magi again.

"You rape me and I'll **never **come see you again, I'll even tell Kou what you did and they'll destroy you." he threatened with the best angry face he could make in his disheveled state. Sinbad didn't fall for it. "You won't get your Magi."

"I'm not raping you, I wouldn't do such a thing. You haven't even told me 'no' yet!" Sinbad faked surprise. In truth, Sinbad would never go much further than this, and he certainly wouldn't have let it get this far if Judar hadn't been visibly aroused and not even truly trying to get away. In the past Judar had shown great force when cornered, even without his magic. Ja'far didn't call him a 'wild animal' or 'force of nature' for no reason. "So what's different tonight that you're resisting less? I even managed to get my kiss in."

Judar blushed and looked away, tempted to confess the truth, but chose to remain silent. Sinbad's eyebrow lifted as the sudden coy behavior; extremely unlike his little raven's usual wild self. Sinbad leaned down further to get close once again to the dangerous fire-red eyes that glared at him once more with the wrath of an an ethereal demon. "Damn you're beautiful." he whispered before planting a ginger kiss on his cheek without breaking eye contact. He never wanted to look away from those dragon eyes. Judar blushed and turned his head away again, taking away the king's view. A heat of some sort rose in his chest and up to his jeweled choker, a very unfamiliar heat. It was a combination of fear, arousal, and...fondness? Was he suddenly fond of this dumbass pervert?!

_'Oh hell no!'_ Judar's mind rebelled against the very idea of such an abominable ideology.

His mind may have restraint, but his body did not. As Sinbad's mouth descended upon his own once more an internal struggle took hold of Judar's entire being, mind versus body. Judar opened his mouth to speak, but only ended up letting the cracken of the seven seas inside. A groan of distress and pleasure echoed from Judar's throat and onto the king's lips as another thrust of his hips bore down upon his aching body. As another push of Sinbad's body rocked the Magi's senses he whined something that the king couldn't understand and shivered visibly. Sinbad lifted himself off once more and looked down upon the panting beauty. He watched for a moment as the younger man's chest heaved with excitement and exhaustion. A thin layer of sweat starting to form on his forehead and this thick black bangs clung to his face.

"Do you want this?" Sinbad asked, openly begging for permission.

There was no logic behind his answer, only the inner animal in him burning with the desire to mate. "Finish what you started." Judar's crimson eyes flashed dangerously. Sinbad could swear the Magi's voice dropped an octave, it turned him on more than anything else he'd ever experienced before in the seven nations he'd conquered.

Nothing else coherent was spoken as the king slammed his hips onto Judar's once more and ripped a sharp gasp from him. He released his wrists and allowed the demon to reposition himself so that his arms were around the king's shoulders and the king's hands were behind his knees. Without removing a single article of clothing the two feral animals toiled against one another. Fangs met Sinbad's neck to muffle the screams of pleasure coming out of his little monster with each heave of their bodies. Sinbad was entirely certain there'd be a mark there for quite a while that he could admire in the mirror later. Closer and closer to release, Judar's sense of pride and dominance slipped further away. Never had he been so subjected to another's will and touch before like this, not even when he let the maids and female royal guests 'ride' him. This was the first time the self-proclaimed alpha male had submit to another so much.

His inhibition hit the floor and he, in his own mind, openly submit himself to this other man and his wretched method. His nails pressed into the cloth on the back of his new mate that continued his onslaught on the demon's senses. He wasn't sure how much longer he'd last, but he waited almost patiently for that moment to arrive. As the pace increased greatly, Sinbad feared the table might collapse and ruin the mood. There was nothing left on the table except his beautiful disaster of a Magi wailing curses loudly. Claws tore at the king's robe and left large red marks down his back, normally he'd wince at such pain, but right now it drove him harder.

Judar's hand reached up and yanked his hair impatiently. "Hurry up, quit making me wait so long!" he shrieked out and the larger man obliged. The fiend's legs instinctively wrapped tighter around the assaulting man's waist, forcing him harder.

Sinbad used his right palm to press Judar's should back down onto the table and hold him there as he thrust again and again, this time with the intention of making him talk. "Say my name." he demanded.

"Go to hell!" Judar moaned out as he threw his head back, tossing his braid over the other side of the desk and onto the floor. His hands gripped the sides of the desk to prevent being pushed off the edge by his aggressive lover.

"I'll make you say it!" Sinbad said rigidly.

"Never!" the demon groaned, he was too close to the finale to give in to his whim now. As meager attempt to regain control of himself and cease this silly act of submission Judar closed his eyes and pushed his head back to avoid as much of the closeness as possible.

Sinbad reach around and pulled on his long braid up over the top of his head, forcing him to look up at him as he ground his cock onto his harshly again. "**Say. My. Name.**" he roared with power.

Everything inside Judar snapped alongside the flood of the sticky wet heat that washed over his crotch. As the king's semen soaked through the front of his own pants, Judar exploded into euphoria at long last and cried out for mercy. "**Hakuryuu!**"

Sinbad's eyes opened wide as he halted to a sudden stop and looked down at the stupefied Magi; entirely bewildered and speechless. Wide eyed, panting heavily, sweat rolling down his face and neck, and traumatized by his own damned mouth; Judar's shaky hands released the desk, ripped the ring off, and vanished before the king could even say a word. All that was left of the ludicrous situation was the ring on the desk, the papers scattered all around his feet, and a very heartbroken monarch. A sob escaped his lips that could be heard from outside.

_'Killed with words.' _Ja'far thought with sympathy for his king from outside the door, having heard the entire ordeal.


	5. Chapter 5

Kougyoku was making her floral rounds when she stumbled upon a rather interesting scene unfolding. She set the vase of flowers down on the nearest table and made her way quietly over to Hakuei's side, listening intently.

"How very interesting, you appear and Judar's magoi mysteriously just vanishes?" the dark haired princess scoffed. Kougyoku's heart slammed and her cheeks burned as she placed a hand on her cousin's forearm.

"Wh-wh-what is happening?!" the red princess stuttered out. As the words left her mouth she vaguely recognized the white and black outfit on the girl standing adjacent to them. "Isn't that Judar-chan's old outfit?"

"He gave it to me." Arajah said stiffly.

Both of the princesses bore the same expression, near disgust and anger. "He told us about the horrendous bath you gave him, he wouldn't **give** you his expensive clothes! He wouldn't even do that if you were the kindest person in the world to him!"

"I seriously doubt this thing even fits him anymore..." the Magi groaned out.

As the girls continued their fruitless bickering Kouen responded to the commotion, at first he was perplexed as to who exactly he was looking at _argueing _with Kou royalty.

"He and I talked it out, we made amends over the stupid bath thing! He was rude to me so I was rude to him, we're cool with it now!" she hissed back.

"Finally," Kouen said as he approached them. "You entire empire is looking for you, we sent word that you'd made it safely, but I wasn't at ease until I could lay eyes on you myself."

Kougyoku and Hakuei turned to their brother, one confused and the other ready to stage a damn coup d'etat. The redheaded princess tilted her head confused, this volatile intruder was summoned here by another empire? "Big brother," Kougyoku began wish her hands on her hips. "What's this about Judar-chan being missing and this girl being here in **his **clothes?!"

"Good question," Kouen gave the strange girl a look of suspicion. "Where is our Magi, Lady Arajah?"

_'Lady?' _Kougyoku questioned internally. _'So she's at least nobility in rank, right?'_

"I didn't know Judar was missing..." Arajah mumbled out with wide eyes. "I just saw him less than an hour ago."

"Where?" Kouen's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"In his room, he was reading fanmail to me from some king guy. Why?" the Magi was becoming nervous.

"_King_?" Kougyoku's voice trembled. _"Fanmail?"_

Kouen's eyes burned into Arajah's venomously, not that he was upset directly at her per se, but she was definitely connected and could likely be the key to getting Judar to return, especially if he gave her some of his precious clothes and jewelry. He recognized that choker, it was at one time the black Magi's favorite piece. "That blasphemous **king **has always been a thorn in our empire's side, but now he's an active threat if Judar paid him a little visit and had taken him hostage."

Hakuei and Kogyoku were frozen in fear, but Arajah wasn't very alarmed. Either the Kou Magi was gone and she wouldn't be forced into a marriage, or he was ok and coming back soon and all is well, or...he really has been taken hostage and is even more miserable there than he ever was here. Arajah wasn't sure which one was more likely. She hated to admit it, but she was now actually **worried **about this asshole Magi; the asshole who was so nice to her for some reason. She decided to hold her tongue about the part where Judar mentioned that this king wanted him to join his empire instead. Obviously if Judar hadn't told them already, he didn't want them to know. She wasn't about to betray Judar's trust even further than she already had.

"Should she be locked up for trespassing and assault on our precious Judar-chan?" Kougyoku asked with a sneer.

"No, we can't..." Hakuei sighed in defeat. "The French empire sent her here to **marry **Judar-chan..."

Kouen did not allow the despair and heartbreak in Hakuei's voice escape him, something definitely to write down in the books as suspicious. Kougyoku on the other hand shrieked and clasped her hand over her mouth with a loud _**slap**_. So much for keeping the French courting thing a secret from Judar until the morning. Quickly Kouen formed an idea to try to get hold of the situation before it reached Judar's ears.

_'Or maybe it already has and that's why he's run off? No, he wouldn't stop and give his stuff away to her like that if he was running away.' _Kouen's mind raced for a solution.

"Arajah," the prince started and the girl focused her violet eyes on the man. "Did you happen to already tell Judar the plan yet?"

She considered lying for a moment, but would that really help anything? "No." she lied in an attempt to protect Judar's reputation within his own empire. If they thought Judar was running away from his people they might think of him as a traitor and a coward, the last thing she wanted was to upset him.

Kouen wasn't sure if she was honest or not, but he had no choice but to take her word on it. "We have a room prepared for you if you'd like to avoid anymore..." he turned to his sister and cousin with his now tired eyes, "..._unwanted company_."

"I appreciate the hospitality." was all she said and followed the man away from the other girls. As the two walked side by side down the corridor, he grinned without looking at her.

"So you can use shapeshift-illusion magic, impressive." Kouen said as they reached a room at the opposite end of the palace as where Judar stayed.

"How did you know?" she asked calmly.

"You have been missing for over a week from your empire, they informed us of your escape and suspected you might have headed here to scout out your future husband on your own terms. That you'd become increasingly rebellious this last year." he said as he opened the door for her to reveal a large and lavish room akin to Judar's. "You disguised yourself as one of our regular maids, hence how you managed to be allowed to answer Judar's bell. You plotted, waiting, and executed that plan beautifully, albeit you've managed to cause one **hell** of an uproar within our entire hierarchy."

"My apologies, it wasn't my intention to upset your Magi." she said as she stepped inside the room and he remained at the doorway. She turned to face him and gave him a stern look. "But it was truly him that caused the scene, not me."

"Those red marks all over his body say otherwise."

"Oh he **loved **it." she grinned back at him and he nodded, returning the smirk.

"I'm sure he did. We will awake you for breakfast in the morning." he said as he closed her door. _'So they've already had sex, eh? And she's wearing his precious clothes and jewelry? This is a good sign actually, far better results than hoped. Perhaps we won't have to use that **new spell** on Judar after all...'_

Arajah had sensed an enormous malevolent force enter the area, black rukh stormed her entire room. She could sense the despair and intense depravity in the rukh; Judar had returned to the palace. He had teleported straight back into his bedroom where he grabbed the sides of his head and collapsed on the ground. He didn't know at what point exactly tears had started rolling down his cheeks, but then again that could be sweat. He chose to believe it was just sweat; that is until he noticed that his vision was extremely blurred. A couple agonizing sobs escaped from him as he tried to even process what he was feeling. Was he sad? Aggravated to the point of tears? Annoyed at his own body and subconsciousness? He couldn't even discern a specific emotion out of the three, all he knew is that this was his first time experiencing any of them, but now he was facing off against all three at once. Three different knives jabbing at him that he has absolutely no idea how to handle. Oh, guilt, a fourth knife!

The memory of calling out to the young prince during his ecstasy induced moment flashed through his mind. Why had euphoria brought the teen boy to mind of all people? _'That damn love confession! I should never have asked him how he felt about me! Maybe then my damn imagination wouldn't run so wild! But what if I was just using Sinbad as a way to fuck Hakuryuu? Are those actions things I actually want to do to him instead?' _he wanted nothing more than to erase the last hour of his life and start over; to un-fuck his own heart and mind.

His magoi hadn't fully returned yet and he had no control over his pitch black rukh yet, that damn ring always fucked with him when the bastard king slipped it on his fingers. Flying was out of the question, standing up hurt like hell. He got on his hands and knees and crawled like a goblin out of hell across his floor, unable to stand properly after being slammed into so hard for so long by that absolutely moronic king. He reached his bathroom where he tore all of his clothes off and turned the faucet to his tub on. With shaky legs he threw himself into the tub harshly and let the hot water boil the sin off of him, literally, Sinbad clung to his skin all over his body. He grabbed a bottle of soap and dumped the whole thing onto his chest as the water level continued to rise. He scrubbed sweat, semen, tears, and shame off of his aching body. He didn't even attempt to remove his elbow length bracelets and neck choker, he hadn't the dexterity for such nonsense at the moment.

As he scrubbed vigorously his mind kept flashing back to his humiliating pounding served by the king of filth. The tears of guilt and shame kept rolling down his cheeks, refusing to stop, as if the years of repressed tears were now breaking loose. He had no idea his body held so much water, he was certain that it was enough to mildly dehydrate him if he didn't stop soon. His entire body was bright red from scrubbing and his hair scorched with the hottest water his scalp could handle. No matter how much he scrubbed he didn't feel _clean_. He was permanently dirty, for the rest of his life. Tainted.

As he allowed himself to sob like a child hoping it would get the damn emotions out of his head once and for all, his ears picked up a noise, a very familiar noise.

_"Je voudrais...je voudrais...je souhaite que...je souhaiteque..."_

The sound was fairly far off, as if she were in the very center of his courtyard. He hoped that she didn't hear his crying out in agony for the last several minutes. She stopped singing lyrics and instead hummed heavenly, her voice very evidently getting closer and closer. As soon as he was sure that she was at his bedroom window he yelled out to her. "Don't you **dare **come in here!"

_"Je souhaite qu'il m'aime comme je l'aime" _Her voice continued to draw nearer.

_"__Je souhaite qu'il, comme un amoureux, me laisse le consoler"_ He was absolutely certain that she was inside his bedroom at this point.

"If you come anywhere fucking near me right now-" his roaring voice froze, her voice now entering his bathroom, but she herself was nowhere to be seen.

"Je souhaiterais que mon rukh le trouve et l'aime et en retour il aimerait le mien." her voice rang out peacefully in his head.

It was only now that he was calm did he realize that he was surrounded entirely by white rukh; **her** rukh. _'Her rukh...is singing to me?'_

He, on very unsteady legs, lifted himself from the tub and grabbed a white robe and wrapped himself loosely in it. He hobbled to his bed where he sat down trying to rest his racing heart, but to no avail. The white rukh continued to serenade him with that ridiculous Magi's hymn.

_"_Viens me trouver mon amoureux dans la nuit."

He had no clue what words were spoken, but they lulled him and his heart started to slow finally.

"J'attends votre arrivée tardive, mon sombre amant."

He laid his head down on his pillow, hair thoroughly soaking the fabric, as he tried to block out the assailing song. He honestly wasn't sure if he actually wanted it to stop, or if he wanted to find her and **make **her stop. Her white rukh was starting to conflict with his black rukh, and there was just no way in hell he could sleep with that war going on all around him. He floated out of bed, something he was thankful he could do once more. He followed the trail of twinkling white rukh in the dark corridors of the night until he found the course of the bloody chorus. He reached for the doorknob when suddenly something in her rukh shifted and dispersed. Perhaps she'd realized that he was now outside her door ready to murder her?

"_I wish he would find me, here in my arms, and a night together we would spend." _

_'That was in my language!' _he thought as his hand lingered over the doorknob. Did he even want to open the door and confront her? Or did she get the message to shut up yet?

_"I wonder...I wonder..." _her voice picked up again and he angrily opened the door to revel her bare breasts and torso as she sat up in her bed with the sheets drawn over her lap._"If I keep singing, will my song go ringing...to someone who'll find me...and bring back a love song to me..." _Her hand reached out to him, almost desperately, pleading for him to let her console his raging black rukh. Her white rukh wrapped itself around him warmly, like a blanket inviting him back to bed.

He melted. He gave in. He no longer had the will to resist her lullaby. He floated over to her extended arm and took her hand gently, enter lacing their fingers. His black rukh was smothered by the massive amount of white rukh drowning him. "Don't stop." he commanded in a hazy whisper, his cheeks beat red. She wasn't sure if he was blushing or if he had used water much too hot to bathe in. His long sopping wet hair, loose and untamed, framed his body and his loose robe hang open to reveal almost his entire body to her. He was red from head to toe. He let her pull him into bed with her and laid his wet head on her bare stomach. The rest of his body laid haphazardly across her lower body, the only barrier between them were the thin sheets that only reached her waist. She placed a hand on his head and stroked the wet locks of raven hair as she continued her love song to him.

_"I wonder...I wonder...why each little bird has a someone...to sing to...sweet things to... I wonder...I wonder..."_

Before she knew it he was sound asleep. She continued with a wordless humming until she too let the night reclaim her.

_**BLK: Song lyrics are from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.**_


	6. Chapter 6

_His nose caught the warm aroma of a crackling hearth and his eyes flickered open. The lightest of voices played him a gentle hymn that he only vaguely recognized. The Magi girl's hymn? No, this was softer and far less professionally executed. Suddenly, the sound of water boiling and something metal against metal repeatedly hit his ears sharply. A new smell emerged, someone was cooking food, good food. A hand, a very large hand, swept over his forehead and skull, it was a very bizarre feeling, as if his hair had gone missing. He didn't like the way this felt, he didn't want to be wherever **here **was._

_"My precious boy." a sweet voice called out and Judar threw his eyes open. _

_His blurry eyesight was met with a smiling woman with long dark brown hair pulled into twin cat buns on her head. Her ruby eyes brimming with tears blinked several times down at him. The woman picked him up, yes, his entire body, and cradled him up her her chest. It was only just now that he realized what exactly was happening. His eyes, just as red as the woman's, opened wider and stared at her in wonder._

_'I'm a baby?!' his mind searched for a logical answer, but couldn't think of anything logical. He tried to struggle, but his legs were swaddled tightly. So he tried to speak, but only garbled noises came from his mouth. It felt extremely freakish to not have teeth he noted. He considered screaming, but he didn't know what good that would do him._

_'Have I been reincarnated? Did Al-Thamen execute me and I just don't remember?' his mind swirled with theories, but no memories of such an event surfaced. 'What's the last thing I can remember? Damnit!' he cursed inside of his head madly as the woman holding him stood up and walked closer to the sound of boiling water._

_"Honey, have you thought of a name yet?" the woman's voice asked and Judar tried his best to shift his head to the side to see who she was talking t, but his head felt enormous and his neck was too weak to perform such a task so easily._

_The man chuckled softly and the next thing Judar knew was that there was a new set of hands on him, removing him from the woman's grasp. The man held him with his feet to his chest and his head held up by his hand so that they were face to face. He had long black hair in a braid over his shoulder and a wide grin plastered over his face._

_'Holy shit, he looks just like me!' Judar thought then noticed the man dark brown eyes that didn't have Judar's fire in them._

_With a silly grin still beaming the man said, "Well, Jasmine is out of the question! I was certain he was gonna be a girl with the way you ate while pregnant!"_

_"Oh come on!" the woman cried out in mock hurt feelings. She stood shoulder to shoulder with the man and leaned her head on him. Her hand reached out to brush away the tear that had just rolled down Judar's cheek._

_'These people...are my parents...' Judar realized as another tear escaped from him. 'I always wondered if I looked like them at all...'_

_"How about..." the man thought with a hum. "Mmm...Bai?" the woman shook her head 'no'. "Bao?" again she shook her head ravenously and stuck her tongue out. "You pick then!" the man whined._

_"Meihua." she said in almost a whisper._

_The man blinked and furrowed his brows. __"That's a girl name!" he stammered._

_"But it fits!" she said as she grabbed Judar and held him in her arms again and walked over to the other side of the small room and turned Judar around to face out the window. It was snowing, blizzarding even, and all the trees were dead with no leaves. One exception though, a small tree just outside the house was covered in little red flowers, the only plant living in this winter wonderland. "The plum blossoms, the mei-hua, are the only flower that survives in the winter and blooms in spite of adversity. Their red dots lined the streets of my old neighborhood, they remind me of home. His eyes remind me of home."_

_"Meihua..." the man mumbled affectionately as he took Judar back into his arms. "It does fit!"_

_"May the winters bless his journey through life, may it be that the ice guides him home like it did me in my youth." his mother said and Judar's heart almost exploded._

_In this moment there was no such thing as Magi, black rukh, Al-Thamen, Kou, Sinbad, Hakuryuu, scheming princesses, or Arajah; there was just this. This sublime moment in which everything was right and as it should be, probably the happiest feeling he'd ever known in his life, and he finally knew his real name. He never wanted to leave this moment, he wanted time to just stop here, or at least go backwards and never have Al-Thamen show up. Or perhaps..._

_'I wish I weren't a Magi...maybe then I could stay here...forever...'_

_The next thing he knew there was a lot of loud noises and pure chaos, screams filled the air, his small body fell to the floor harshly. Judar screamed out and cried, knowing exactly what was happening; and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He didn't care that he was in pain from the fall, all he knew was that his paradise was being torn to shreds by the men in white hoods. He hated this fate, he rejected it._

_'I should have stayed with Sinbad...'_

* * *

Loud rustling and bustling could be heard outside of her bedroom door, the distinct sound of urgent foot steps running just outside her bedroom walls echoed. Voices with important tones barked orders as the scent of incense wafted all around her. She felt heavy and stiff, like the ceiling had collapsed on top of her in her sleep. She went to move her legs only to find that they were indeed being held hostage by something heavy and very **_cold_**. Black rukh swarmed the room like a bomb waiting to go off and annihilate the Kou palace. She looked down at her legs, Judar was still asleep, but frozen and his rukh running rampant. She remembered him falling asleep on top of her, but he was very calm and serene at that moment. Now he was purely chaotic and brimming with rage. As she watched him grip the sheets that froze solid in his grasp she noticed that he was radiating frost, as if she'd left her window open on a winter morning.

"Judar!" she tried to shake him awake as she reached for his shoulder. She recoiled her hand as soon as it made contact with his bare flesh, he was so cold it hurt to touch. Again she tried to move her trapped legs, but found that they were practically frozen to him. She'd considered calling out for help, but with her chest exposed and the black Magi on top of her also almost nude, spare for the open robe, it might look a bit scandalous. "Judar please wake up!" she cried out and beat him over the head with a pillow.

He shot up and his crimson eyes glared at her, ready for the kill. He crawled the rest of the way on top of her, pinning her down and leering down at her with a scowl unlike any other she'd ever seen, it absolutely terrified her to the core. His hands latched onto her wrists harshly, earning a whine of pain from her.

"J-judar?" she whimpered out fearfully. He gripped her wrists even tighter and growled deeply.

_'I have to snap him out of this!' _she thought in a panic as his face drew closer to hers with that evil aura. _'Maybe singing would work? It did last night...'_

_"Lavender's green dilly dilly, Lavender's blue dilly dilly...if you love me then I shall love you..." _she sang out with a shaky voice. His eyes softened, but his scowl didn't entirely drop. _"Let the birds sing and the lambs play dilly dilly...we shall be safe, out of harm's way..." _The pressure on her wrists lessened greatly, but he did not let go yet. _"When I am Queen you'll be my King...who told me so? Dilly dilly, I told my self, dilly dilly, I told me so..."_

He completely released her and sat up, straddling her lap like a child. As he looked down at her in calm confusion he looked around the room to see frost covering every inch. Her nipples were hard from the frozen atmosphere and her lips shivered. She ceased her lullaby and used the chilled sheets to cover her chest as she watched his actions carefully, unsure if he had regained sanity yet or not. He looked down to see himself barely even clothed and followed suit by closing his robe and sliding off of her. He stood up and gave her an apologetic look before exiting the room and returning to his own, leaving her utterly baffled and fearful of him. Not even Al-Thamen was that scary in her opinion.

* * *

Hakuryuu wasn't thrilled in the slightest about today's events, but then again, if Judar really did marry the Magi girl...

_'Maybe I can let go of this feeling?' _the young prince thought as he walked slowly down the halls towards the dining hall for breakfast. _'But I... I don't want to stop loving him...' _he thought as he watched the black Magi float down the hall towards him, garbed only in a loose white robe and his hair loose and astray. He looked like a poltergeist from a children's fairy tail story book, rather haunting and eerie sight if you'd never met the black Magi before. It was almost mesmerizing to see, he'd never seen Judar so _**undone **_before. The expression on the Magi's face was unreadable and his gaze fixed downward, not having noticed the prince that stood just before him yet. As the floating diety drew nearer Hakuryuu noticed how red his skin was, particularly his cheeks. His hair was tossed over the front of his face, leaving only slivers of vantage points to view the Magi's distraught features.

Hakuryuu did nothing to evade or move out of his heartbreaker's way and simply allowed the other man to bump into him with a very soft force. He caught his by the shoulders gently and allowed him to steady himself, as he did so he felt the chill of his aura envelope him; like he was made of ice. Hakuryuu's hands let go instantly, the bitter coldness biting at his fingers. Judar's eyes locked onto the prince's shoes and snapped his head up. The fires of hell locked with the roaring ocean as steam rose between the two. He wasn't sure if the steam was from how absolutely cold his arctic Magi was, or if he had gotten hot from just touching the man. Hakuryuu enjoyed the closeness, faces mere inches apart, but Judar's mind flashed back to his orgasm with Sinbad and how in his final moments of bodily rapture he'd called out for the boy's touch instead of Sinbad's. Judar's feet touched the ground and he tried to stand up, but only ended up collapsing into the other man's arms where they both ended up on their knees. The soul-shuddering chill of Judar's magic cascaded down onto the prince's entire body and he trembled in both delight and slight pain.

"Judar?" the blue prince cried out worriedly. "Why are you so weak this morning?" A nest of black tangled mass laid itself on his shoulder as gold bangled arms wrapped around his sides tightly. The cold never ceasing its intensity as he felt it squeeze the life out of him as Judar's hands grabbed at the fabric on his back. One of the prince's hands went to hold Judar's head and pat it, he noticed that his hair was..._**crunchy**__? _Like he hadn't washed all of the shampoo out of it before drying it. Very out of character for the vain Magi.

"Haku...ryuu..." the frail voice of the Magi sighed out. Hakuryuu's eyes widened, this was **not **Judar. Not his Judar anyways. "I'm so sorry about yesterday." he said softly then lifted his head to look at the trembling boy in the eyes; a breeze of cold winter air hit him in the face as the man's head moved. He looked almost dead inside, like his will had been broken. Those once proud eyes that scorched souls and laid waste to entire kingdoms was now just a dying ember. "I didn't mean to scream like that, I was just...just...stressed out..." Even his breath was chilly as it fanned the boy's cheek.

"So the scream wasn't your answer after all?" he asked with bleak hope. He knew. Hakuryuu knew Judar would never reciprocate his feelings, but he refused to not try. He'd never forgive himself if he never confessed, if he never had an answer, if he never made an effort to make it work. **Any **answer Judar could give was better than simply never confessing.

"I can't give you an answer right now, but will you wait for me?" Something in Judar's lifeless eyes was pleading for a mercy of sorts, and the young prince wasn't sure what to say. All he could do was nod, then Judar released him and floated back up and over him to reach his bedroom door and vanish into the mysterious room. Hakuryuu stood up, heart pounding in his face as he turned scarlet red. Once he thawed out from the icy embrace, the prince stood back up and straightened himself out.

"What was that?!" Hakuei asked from behind him, he hadn't noticed her presence at all.

"I...I don't know..." was all he could say as he turned to stare at Judar's bedroom door. "I've never seen him so somber before."

"Where do you think he came from dressed like _that_?" she asked with less than pure intentions. The thought hadn't previously crossed Hakuryuu's mind, curious indeed.

"I'd wager to say from the French Magi's room." was all he said as he turned and left, knowing the conversation would likely escalate unpleasantly if Hakuei got too worked up. He knew that his sister and cousin held the girl in contempt simply out of jealousy.

* * *

The kingdom of Sindria was deafly silent, everyone in the castle knew not to approach him that morning. As the first rays of sun poked through the king's bedroom window, his golden eyes opened. His face flushed and his purple mane tangled beyond all recognition. He had spent the greater portion of his night wallowing in agony and self-loathing. After a night of yanking on his own hair madly his scalp was badly bruised. The bruises weren't the only reason his head hurt though, he'd practically drown himself in liquor the entire night, trying to get the young Kou prince's name out of his head before he came to resent an innocent man. Yet Judar's screams of his name replayed in his mind over and over again, unwilling to yield to exhaustion or reason.

With a heavy sigh the king pulled himself out of bed and drug himself into his bath that was now cold. Ja'far had set it up for him almost an hour ago, but he lacked the motivation to move an inch before now. As he worked on his hair with a comb his heart kept sinking with every thought. Every memory that resurfaced of last night's mis-adventure brought him closer and closer to another fit of tears. **His **beautiful demon was in love with another man. **His **kingdom's future Magi was sold to Kou forever; to that evil organization. **His **soulmate had wandering eyes and hands. Nothing hurt more than knowing the person your heart screamed out for had little to no interest in you. Even in his youth the black Magi had drawn him in, not romantically at first, but definitely some sort of positive force clawed at his heart. What was once a cheeky brat with attractive powers, was now a temptress of his deepest desires. When the boy had become a man a whole new array of feelings ripped through his chest. He'd never forget the first time he saw Judar as a proper adult, his heart and body melted at his radiance. Those _**damn eyes**_ stole his heart and soul and enslaved him with just one look. Those _**damn hips **_seduced his body with one sway.

_'One cocky smirk, one look of the devil's irises, that's all it took... I am a slave to him now and forever...' _Sinbad thought as a tear spilled from his eye. He finished combing his hair and sank back into the tub fully. When he closed his eyes all he could see was rubies staring back at him alongside that wicked grin that teased him so. How he longed to play with that long onyx hair just once. Pulling it during their escapade earlier wasn't enough, he wanted to brush it and play with it as the man slept on his chest all night. He bet his hair felt like fine silk or maybe like warm running water. He wondered if the villainous vexxer snored or mumbled in his sleep. Did he like sweets at all? Sindria had great bakers, maybe he could win him over that way?

Vigorously, Sinbad shook his head. He couldn't allow himself to think that way anymore. _'The longer I mourn, the harder it will be, the longer it'll take me to get over him. Sinbad, you have a kingdom to run and a world to save! You can't wallow forever!' _he thought as he smacked his cheeks to wake himself up. _'But I...' _another tear escaped his eyes and landed in the bath water. _'I don't **want** to stop loving him.'_

An old memory of Judar emerged against his will; of the day he attacked them in the streets of Parthevia. It was the first time he'd seen the Magi wearing a revealing outfit, it exposed his hips and abs. Falling in love with his eyes was easily understandable, but when Judar sashayed his way over to him and leaned his head on his should tauntingly he was sold to that devil. The parting gift, a slow lick up his cheek, was the first time the younger man had aroused him. A feeling burning deep inside that he'd never forget; that he yearned to _satisfy_. It really was Judar's fault that this man craved him so badly, he had after all planted the seed of lust in him that day.

And on purpose no less.

_'I give up, I'll just have to roll in my own self-pity for another night before I can get him out of my mind...' _Sinbad thought in defeat.

With as much effort as he could muster he climbed out of the bath, dried off, then dressed himself regally. There was no use trying to put on a brave face or happy-go-lucky attitude, he knew Ja'far already told everyone that he'd been dumped. As he entered the throne room he noticed that all of his advisers and generals were present, something very uncommon for this early hour of the morning. He knew they were all likely just showing their support, or satisfying their curiosity. It wasn't everyday that their king was so dreary and depressed as he was today. Ja'far silently approached him and nearly startled him half to death when he mystically appeared at his side by the throne. He handed him a letter and without saying a word he conveyed an urgent message through his eyes alone.

Sinbad returned the intrigued look and cautiously opened the letter. As he broke the seal he noticed the French symbol on it and his heart skipped a beat. _'Perhaps Judar...really wasn't lying?!' _his mind roared with theories and ideas. He read the letter quickly and scowled at it. "A Magi for **sale**? So he wasn't lying." Sinbad said as he rolled the letter back up and stood, all of his generals' eyes were shifted back to him, quietly awaiting his message.

"We will not be buying the French Magi." he announced and everyone else looked puzzled, Ja'far included. "The French empire has sent us a letter, offering us their Magi in exchange for an alliance of power. I have reason to believe that this is not our best course of action as Sindria."

"You just want Judar!" Ja'far shouted abruptly, catching his king off guard.

"I know I can't have Judar, not now, not **ever**!" Sinbad yelled back and Ja'far's eyes widened. Guilt stabbed at the young man's heart, realizing his insensitivity towards his beloved king. "The French Magi won't help us either, Ja'far. France is a weak empire with no metal vessel users, no king's candidates, and an extremely tiny army. An equal-alliance with them won't benefit us."

"But..." Ja'far began trying to find the right words. "What if...we absorbed them as the eight nation? In exchange for their Magi we could accept it?" The freckled man let out a shuddering sigh, hoping his words smoothed over his previous comment.

"Not a bad idea." Sinbad said as he sighed out deeply and put his hand over his chest in an attempt to calm himself. "But that isn't the only problem here."

"Is Judar the problem at all?" Ja'far asked cautiously.

"Kind of, maybe not so much him really. He originally asked me to take her in, it was his idea in the first place. However, this letter also asks us to attend the Kou-French courting event starting today. It lasts a whole month, so we have time to make it there to participate." Sinbad explained as his outstretched hand held the scroll in his fist. "We're going. Begin preparations."


	7. Chapter 7

**BLK: I just want it known now that there's no scecific timeline in which this story takes place. For example, Aladdin is an adult, but Judar hasn't broken away from Al-Thamen or Kou yet and Sinbad hasn't gone completely psycho.**

Gasps and whispering filled the throne room as the advisers, generals, and courtmen began chattering. Sinbad exited the room that bustled with confusion and worry and headed towards his office. Everything was neat and organized, much to his surprise. Ja'far must have cleaned up after him, he'd have to thank him later for that. He packed a suitcase of personal belongings and a suitcase of useful magic tools. He grabbed a glass case containing four rings inside and frowned down at it. _'Now that I know there are five, and most likely six, Magi, I'll need two more rings.'_

"Ja'far!" the king called out and within a swift, and terrifyingly silent, step the young man was beside him. "Tell Yamraiha to come see me at once."

"Of course." was all he said before making his way back to the throne room.

Within seconds the blue haired mage appeared in the office and cleared her throat. "Yes?"

"Yam, I need your powers one more time before the trip to Kou." Sinbad opened with as he turned towards her holding the box of rings. "I need three more rings."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "Those rings only work on Magi, why would you need a sixth and seventh one on top of the fifth one!?"

"Judar tipped me off that there's a sixth Magi as well, and why wouldn't there be a hidden seventh one at that point? What the fuck else is Al-Thamen hiding that even Judar and the French Magi don't know about? I'm taking no chances." Sinbad explained and Yamraiha nodded in agreement.

"Good plan, it can't hurt anything. Even if there is no sixth or seventh Magi, then we have two spares in case Judar goes rogue again or this French Magi goes postal on us and destroys her ring." she said as she left then set to work.

"Ja'far, send word to Aladdin that I require his aid." Sinbad called out, not entirely certain the man was even within hearing range. His doubts didn't last long as an 'ah' noise rang out from a distance and utter silence took over again. For the next couple of hours Sinbad continued packing his tools.

As Sindria prepared for their journey, a certain somebody had waltzed into the castle, albeit by invitation. The teenage Magi and his king's candidate followed by their pink haired warrior were welcomed inside the palace. Aladdin greeted all of his friends as he made his way to Sinbad's office where they were allotted inside by Ja'far. Sinbad gave the trio a warm welcome as they took seats around his desk. Inwardly, Sinbad cringed when Aladdin placed his elbows on the very spot Judar's ass had rested as he slammed into him just hours ago. Luckily their clothes had stayed on for the full duration or there might have needed to be some deeper cleaning. Much to Sinbad's horror though Aladdin did the unthinkable and shook the desk.

"Hey, why's the table so loose and wobbly?" he asked innocently, Alibaba and Morgiana thought nothing significant of the incident.

Behind them Ja'far stifled a giggle. Sinbad's face turned ghost white as he pulled a biscuit from the snack tray and stuffed it in his mouth like a starving caveman, he grabbed a second one and eagerly extended it in the direction of the Magi who was still rattling the table. "You must be hungry! Eat this!" he said quickly and nervously. Aladdin stopped rocking the desk and took the cookie slowly and eyed it cautiously before sniffing it then taking a bite. "You guys take one too!" the king said urgently and held two more out in their direction. Morgiana and Alibaba gave each other a confused look before accepting the offerings.

Aladdin finished his cookie and coughed to get his attention. "What made you ask us here on such short notice?"

Sinbad swallowed his biscuit harshly and thought for a moment, regaining his sanity. After a sip of black coffee he sighed tiredly. "Long story short, Judar contacted me. There's a fifth Magi, she's in danger, he asked me to save her, I thought he was lying." he started and Aladdin's eyes went wide. "I truly didn't believe it until the French empire sent me an invitation to come **buy** their Magi off of them in exchange for an alliance."

"Th-that's...absurd!" Alibaba stuttered out in horror. "But why did he bring it to **your** attention?"

"I'm not sure if this girl is real or not, but if she is we can't let Kou or Al-Thamen have her. In Judar's letter he went into slight detail about how she's being abused or horribly mistreated, so much so that even **he **felt sympathy for her." Sinbad's hands shook as he spoke.

Aladdin's eyes narrowed and his expression changed heavily. "If Judar is worried, then it's serious."

"Are you thinking of mounting a rescue mission to save her or something? Do we even know where she is?" Alibaba asked.

"Yes, and she's with Judar in the Kou empire right now." he said simply.

"Oh, so she's safe for now?" Morgina asked, only slightly relieved.

"No, she's in the **most **danger there. Not only is Al-Thamen there, but her empire is visiting as well. There's an event going on in Kou starting today called a 'courting' and I can only imagine what the French are up to. It is my belief that they wish to marry her into Kou and form ties with them, but the odd part is that the French also contact me personally. They offered me the same deal I think they're trying to offer Kou and they even had the sheer audacity to invite Sindria to the _soiree_."

"Do you think Kou even knows they invited you?" Aladdin asked pensively.

"My guess is 'absolutely not' if Judar himself felt the need to informed me, he himself likely had no idea that the French were pulling strings in the dark." Sinbad was becoming more and more concerned over the issue at hand now that he had a Magi to consult with. Aladdin was asking questions he hadn't thought of himself, bringing up points that could be dire to success.

"That makes this all the more urgent and dangerous, what should we do?" Aladdin asked eagerly.

"Aladdin, I need you to at least _pretend _to be Sindria's Magi during this mission." Sinbad gave him a stern look and Aladdin's eyes widened slightly at the notion. He'd already turned the man down before, but this was entirely different. "If Sindria shows up with a Magi of their own it'll show not only Kou, but the French as well, that we mean business and we don't negotiate lightly. We won't seem desperate for a second Magi if we already have one."

"Wait a minute!" Alibaba bellowed loudly. "Aladdin isn't your play thing to just-"

"I'll do it!" Aladdin interrupted and his friend's eyes locked onto him in shock. The look on the Magi's face told him everything he needed to know and settled back down. Morgiana placed a hand on the blond's shoulder and he looked at her for reassurance.

"It'll be alright." she told him confidently. Alibaba was suddenly complacent with that.

"But on one condition." Aladdin continued as he stood up and his eyes fixated on Sinbad's. "You ask Yunan first, if he says no then I'll do it." Sinbad's whole face twisted, not in disgust, but in fear.

"I don't even know how to get a hold of that elusive man..." Sinbad's heart sank and he bit his lower lip in thought. "He comes and goes literally like the wind."

"_Oh do I now?_" a gentle voice whispered from directly beside the king and he nearly flew out of his seat with a girlish yelp. He half expected it to be Ja'far messing with him, but to his surprise, and delight, it was the mythical Magi himself crouching down beside him. The giggling blond stood up with a hand over his mouth.

Aladdin giggled lightly. "I saw him sneak up behind you, that's the only reason I thought to make you ask him first."

Sinbad took a deep breath and let it out slowly as his heart rate settled back out of the stroke-range. The king grabbed a cookie off of the stray and shoved it in Yunan's direction haphazardly. Awkwardly, Yunan accepted it with a leer. He eyed Sinbad up and and down, then eyed the trio sitting in front of the desk.

"Don't worry, it's safe." Aladdin smiled at him. "It's not the fruit punch of a cult or anything."

Slowly and unsurely the older Magi took a bite and chewed on it like a grazing cow in a suspicious new pasture. "Soo..." Yunan said after one bite and placed the cookie atop the king's head very delicately, like a dainty woman. "I have some intel that you don't have." Sinbad tolerated the cookie crown for the sake of hearing him out. "Arajah, the French Magi, is to be wed to Judar."

_'So she's real!' _Sinbad thought.

"That explains a lot, but raises even more questions than it answers. Why though?" Sinbad asked as Aladdin gasped. "Might explain why he was so desperate to get rid of her actually, I mistook his urgency for sympathy."

"I did some spying on Judar yesterday, a **lot **more spying than I should have done to be honest..." Yunan paused to give Sinbad a knowing look. The king shrank back down into his seat nervously, cheeks red and heart rate back into the clouds. The trio all looked confused, but continued to listen to the elder Magi. "According to Arajah, when two Magi mate it is guaranteed that their child will also be a Magi. However, when a Magi reproduces with a normal human there's only a small chance. I'm not sure how her father was born, but she is the daughter of a Magi man held captive somewhere in Al-Thamen's clutches. If we don't rescue her from her awful fate, and Judar submits to the whims of that evil organization and mates with her, we'll have a huge mess on our hands."

"Magi mating?" Sinbad returned to his normal position in his chair, the cookie falling to his lap. He started down at the half eaten biscuit and pondered. "Is there even a point in having more than one Magi in your empire?"

"In some ways no, but in other ways yes. I assume they're going to dish out a Magi to every empire, plunge them into depravity, and start world-war-three. My other assumption is that the new Magi born of two other Magi could potentially be far stronger than normal, but I feel like this is less likely. It may just be more experiments that Al-Thamen is doing to see what is and what isn't possible." Yunan mused out loud.

"Is it possible that they just want to gain more allies in preparation for a war with Sindria?" Sinbad asked.

"Yes, but I feel like this is far bigger than that. Something less immediate and more long term." Yunan crossed his arms, staff trapped up against his chest, and shifted his weight to one leg. "Sinbad, I'll help you stop them, as your original Magi it is my job to see this through to the end with you."

Sinbad smirked up at the man eagerly, "Thank you."

"I'll still help too." Aladdin said as he sought an approving look from Yunan who nodded back. "But when this is all over, **I **get to actually be Sindria's Magi."

Yunan shrugged as he raised his eye brows, clearly indifferent.

_'I get a bad feeling about this, Sinbad is **way **too excited about getting a Magi. At least if it's me I can dictate what happens with that power. If this other Magi joins Sinbad it might not end much better than if she stays with Al-Thamen.'_Aladdin thought, unaware of the rage boiling in the seat next to him.

"What?!" Alibaba stood up and threw his palms down onto the desk. It crumbled beneath the force and everything toppled to the floor along with Alibaba. Sinbad's hands clasped over his mouth with a loud slapping noise and a deep gasp. Ja'far let loose a loud howling laugh and everyone turned to look at him.

"How bizarre!" Aladdin said in shock as he helped Alibaba stand up.

"_How bizarre indeed.._." Yunan noted sarcastically as he too snickered with Ja'far. The trio remained as clueless as ever. Sinbad pulled his white turban over his face and shrank into his chair again. He drew his feet onto the seat of the chair and knees up to his chest and hid behind them, arms wrapped tightly around his shins. Yunan would be lying if he said it wasn't utterly adorable to see the man act so coy.

"What the hell happened to your desk, Sinbad?!" Alibaba asked as he stood up and brushed himself off, Morgiana brushing his backside off which caused him to turn towards her and blush slightly.

Sinbad jolted into a proper sitting position, cookie still firmly in place on his lap. "I...I got piss face wasted last night, stumbled into it, broke it...and tried to fix it myself...I'm a king not a carpenter, okay?" he lied desperately to change the subject.

Ja'far and Yunan lost it and roared in laughter together again. "You used to build your own boats before you became king! You're telling me you couldn't fix a simple desk!?" Ja'far barked mockingly at him. Sinbad turned completely red again in bother anger and embarrassment that his best friend had sold him out. Yunan coughed loudly and gasped for air.

"What's so funny?" Morgiana asked innocently.

"**Nothing!"**Sinbad shrieked as he grabbed the half-eaten cookie and shoved it in his mouth hand retreated to an adjacent room muttering incoherently with his mouth full.

As Yunan composed himself somewhat, Ja'far remained paralyzed on the floor in the corner of the room. "Sinbad, come _ba-a-ack_!" Yunan called out through his giggling.

"Mhhfff, nghhfhh bbfhfhhhvv." the king muffled out, mouth still full. After a few moments Sinbad returned with a cart full of glasses and a wine bottle.

"I haven't told you something else alarming that Arajah said." Yunan said suddenly somber, the sudden shift in persona caught the king's attention. He poured the glasses of wine and handed them out as he listened to the Magi's next reply. "She claimed that Aladdin got to be the fourth Magi because..." he paused to look at the younger Magi whose eyes sparkled with curiosity. "He is the latent son of King Solomon and Queen Sheeba; a previous Magi."

Sinbad inadvertently poured wine all over the rubble of what once was a desk, mouth hung open.

"_Oh..._" was all that came out of Aladdin's mouth.

"I don't know how true it is, and if it is true how she or Al-Thamen would know that." Yunan confessed." But I see no reason for her to have lied about that as it was told only to Judar in secret and with no clear motive for telling him."

Ja'far's eyes widened as he sauntered over to the group to listen in closer.

Aladdin tensed up. "I think..." he paused to gauge the room. "I think I already knew that, Ugo hinted at it a few times before I came to this world."

It was now Yunan's turn to be wide eyed and surprised. "I can see why you'd keep that a secret. Also it explains how you obtained Solomon's Wisdom."

"You didn't tell even **me**? I thought we told each other everything!" Alibaba asked, genuinely hurt.

"I'm sorry, but **this **was different. It could endanger me or you somehow. Especially if Al-Thamen found out." Aladdin averted his eyes from his trembling friend.

Sinbad took a large swig of wine followed by an exaggerated deep breath. "Shit just got ugly from all sides of the battle field."

Yunan couldn't agree more. "By the way." he started as he took a cautionary step back from the king who gave him an odd look. "Why do you need **more **of those cursed rings? What's your **real **reason." The danger in Yunan's voice made Sinbad go int overdrive on high alert. Even Ja'far sensed the tension rising between the two and stood closer to his king, ready for anything. "Were you going to enslave all six Magi?"

"No!" Sinbad said astonished at the way Yunan thought of him. "It's to protect the Magi from Al-Thamen! I've tested it out on Aladdin and Judar before, it actually works!" he pleaded. "You're free to remove the ring without struggle or magic!"

"Oh I know it works, when Judar was here last night, not even **I **could sense his presence and I could see him with my own eyes." Yunan said deadpan.

Sinbad scoffed and blushed. "I'm surprised you watched the whole thing..."

The trio were intrigued to say the least, and Ja'far cracked a grin. Yunan was no longer amused by the topic however. "You'll do **anything **to get a Magi, you're shameless." Yunan said uncharacteristically coldly.

Sinbad looked down at the mess of wood, papers, and random objects in a pile on the floor. "Judar...doesn't even have to be a Magi to break my table..."

Ja'far knew all too well what his king meant, Yunan on the other hand was only just now realizing why and it almost broke his heart remembering the name uttered at the grand finale and how the king had a mental breakdown just as he was leaving to follow Judar back to Kou. He never got to witness the full swing of Sinbad's heartbreak, but he could infer it simply from the now soulless look in the king's eyes.

"**Judar **broke your desk?" Alibaba said in suspicion.

"He broke it with his **ass, **if you catch my drift!" Ja'far let loose a howling laugh again, unable to contain himself.

Alibaba's face scrunched in pure disgust as he lifted his hands up to inspect them after realizing what he meant. "I touched that damn desk!"

Sinbad fell down on the floor on his back and stared up at the ceiling. _'The betrayal...Ja'far...why?' _his mind whined.

Yunan sighed. "This is why I was hesitant to eat a cookie that came from the tray on the table. It had been there the night before when **it **happened."

The trio turned to Yunan then back to Sinbad, who remained deathly motionless on the floor, then they all made gagging noises. They ran out of the room to find untainted water to rinse their mouths out.

"Ja'far, would you please excuse Sinbad and I for a moment. I have something _personal _to tell him." the Magi asked and Ja'far nodded, he was just going to eavesdrop from behind the door anyways. Sinbad lifted himself off the floor and muttered a half-hearted apology. For what? Yunan wasn't entirely sure.

"What's so secretive that you'd send Ja'far away?" Sinbad asked.

Yunan's emerald eyes engaged in a silent tango with Sinbad's golden ones. "I don't want to tell you, but I will anyways." the Magi said softly. Sinbad's head tilted to the side, a little confused. "I'm a fan of honesty and I think you deserve at least that much, especially after _last night_."

Sinbad's eyes squinted and he nodded dumbly. Yunan paused to stare at him for another brief moment; fists clenched around his staff tightly.

"I think, after all that I witnessed yesterday, the the only reason Judar called out to Hakuryuu at the end was because just a few hours prior the prince of Kou made a love confession to him." the Magi said Sinbad's eyes opened wide in realization, tears threatened to release, but he held back to hear more of Yunan's explanation. "A confession which he largely rejected."

Somewhere in Sinbad's heart there was a choir of angels singing, but he kept his face well pet together instead of falling apart again. "Are you certain?" the desperation in his voice urged Yunan further.

"Yes, and not only that, but when he got home to Kou he cried for hours on end. I think he broke his own heart as well, not just yours. He's just extremely confused right now, a **lot **is happening to him, just give him some time." Yunan said before turning to leave, Sinbad assumed to also go rinse his mouth out. Not that he truly needed to, the cookies weren't up Judar's asscrack or anything. "He's still yours." Yunan said before turning around to leave. As the fair man retreated Sinbad sank to his knees and cried softly, mostly out of relief.

_"But, I wish it were **me **that you lusted for like that..."_ Yunan barely whispered, but Sinbad's ears caught it and the man's head lifted to see the Magi disappear in a pouf of light before he could even fathom a reply.

Ja'far's heart slammed inside his chest. _'I have **another **love-rival? I was certain after Judar I was safe!' _


	8. Chapter 8

Judar was careful in his bath this time, going slowly and using only lukewarm water; once again not bothering to remove his choker or bracelets. He rewashed his hair and conditioned it properly. He was just glad that the red marks were finally gone from his body and he was back to his perfect self again. He leaned back in the water and let himself stare off into space and process all that had happened in the last day. He hadn't felt such a wide array of emotions since he was a child, and even then they didn't all come crashing down on the same day. He wasn't used to such stress being placed upon his shoulders, normally anything truly stressful was handled by the Kou empire or Al-Thamen. He did his best to put all of the nasty thoughts out of his head and instead focus on the one good thing he'd discovered; his real name.

_'Meihua, huh?' _he thought as his eyes closed and he felt just how badly his hips and thighs ached. He shifted slightly and realized that his lower back and ass were also rather sore and he groaned lightly. _'It wasn't even penetrative sex! I can't imagine how much more pain I'd be in if it were! Wait, bad Judar! Happy thoughts only! No, bad **Meihua!** Judar isn't real!'_

After he was sure he was thoroughly rinsed off he dried and rebraided his hair. He fear Gyokuen's overly intimate touch again and put on a long red and gold robe that he almost never wore unless it was freezing outside. Ironic, the ice mage hated the natural cold, but his own ice didn't bother him. He half-wondered if he could electrocute himself or if his own magoi wouldn't hurt him, but he wasn't about to find out right at the moment. He opened his make up pallet and, for the first time in over a year, he used red eye shadow instead of purple. Right now purple reminded him of that moronic rapist king and he was in no mood for that nonsense today. He clasped a golden bracer with rubies on it over the portion of his braid that touched the back of his head to cover up the white hair tie and a smaller identical one at the end of his braid where the rest of his hair flowed freely out the other end of it. Suddenly, a wave of extreme hunger hit him. He didn't eat his midnight peach last night like he usually did and he was already late for breakfast. He floated out to his garden, snatched a peach, and munched on it and he drifted down the hall towards the dining room.

He was greeted by the sight of the entire Ren family and several other royals he'd never seen before in his life. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or very concerned that Arajah wasn't already present, but he relaxed when he sensed that **blindingly** bright rukh just down the hall and approaching slowly. He took his usual seat, which was usually directly across the table from prince Kouha, but he was, oddly enough, at the opposite end of the table today. Judar couldn't help but look at the dining room entrance as Arajah arrived. Her high heels clacked on the floor as she was escorted by two members of Al-Thamen who, to his absolute dismay, guided her to sit directly across from him. She made no eye contact with him and kept her head down. She was garbed in a tradition French-Victorian lavender dress, her hair loose and unbraided. He frowned, she didn't look at all like a Magi today. Then his eyes caught the shimmer of the choker he'd given her, she had refused to take it off.

Slowly, her violet eyes looked up to him, almost fearfully. She sighed contently when she noticed his expression was soft and not angry or dangerous at all like it was earlier that morning. He inaudibly mouthed '_I'm sorry' _out to her after sensing her tension. She smiled lightly and mouthed something back, but he didn't understand it, he assumed it to be a reciprocation. He chose not to look up at her again for a while. He feared setting off alarms in Gyokuen's head. Not that he'd fucked the girl or anything, but he didn't want more nasty commentary from the vile witch. Even though his eyes refused to land on the other Magi, they did wander over to the new guests now dining with them. He could easily discern who the empress was, she sat directly to the right of the emperor who was at the head of the table; Gyokuen on the opposite side of the table as the French empress. The emperor sandwiched between the two empresses locked eyes with Judar. The black Magi leered back, not angrily, but suspiciously.

When the emperor looked away Judar broke his gaze and looked back to Hakuryuu to his right who was eating casually and not making any suspicious moves or glances. _'At least **he **seems to be acting normal...'_ Judar thought in relief. His eyes wandered further down to table to Hakuei and Kougyoku who were to Hakuryuu's right, they were engaged in the quietest conversation he'd ever heard, not even his ears could discern more than a word here or there. His crimson eyes darted over to Kouen near the head of the table to see him staring down back at him, watching him intently. _'Probably trying to see if it'll talk to or stare at Arajah...' _he assumed. Judar returned his blank stare and the first prince turned away, pretending to be bored.

It was at this moment that Judar realized just how tense he actually was. He was eyeing everyone in the dining hall up and down like pieces of meat in a butchery **except **for Arajah, which he also just now realized is infinitely **more **suspicious than just outright staring at her. He finally looked back at Arajah who had her elbow, rudely, on the table with her chin resting on it. Her head was turned to the side looking back at the entrance of the dining hall, secretly pining for an escape back to Judar's courtyard. It was the only place in this outlandish labyrinth of a palace that she felt comfortable.

After the meal was over, no one moved an inch, which was rare. Normally most of the Ren family bolted from the dining hall like it was on fire after a meal.

Not today.

Today was gonna be the first day in hell for everyone.

As the emperor rose from his seat a gong was rung and Arajah's head whirled around quickly to see what was going on. She spared a quick glance over to Judar who was, to her surprise, giving her a nod. She was confused, did she discuss a secret escape plan with him and forget? The emperor began to speak and both of the Magi looked back at him.

"I know some of you were uninformed about today's events, to my left is the empress of the French empire, Lorraine. Beside her is the first prince Androose, and to his left is the second prince Gaston. Finally, sitting directly across from **our **Magi Judar, is their Magi, Arajah."

Judar shuddered at the way he said it, but still looked back up to the nervous girl. The room broke out into soft chatter and a few gasps from the Ren royals who weren't informed, just like Judar wasn't. Even though Judar had his doubts that this girl was a legitimate Magi, being formally introduced as such helped him believe it a bit more. He still wanted proof though, he made a mental note to have her demonstrate some of her powers for him, for now the issue that laid ahead was the nightmare pouring from the emperor's mouth and into his ears like a disease sweeping the kingdom.

"Judar is hereby engaged to Arajah. Their wedding will be held here at the palace on the last day of this month. Two of the eligible princesses of Kou are to marry the princes of France." he said. A harrowing silence fell upon the entire room, no one uttered a word or even gasped. The people who would be surprised already knew, and everyone else was indifferent. The emperor didn't even bother to seek out Judar's expression, he already knew that he'd lain with the girl and that he had already discovered the secret. In reality, Judar thought he had more time than a mere month.

_'That means I only have one month to whip this useless girl of a Magi into fighting shape...' _he thought as his eyes never wavered from the emperor's standing figure.

The emperor then turned to the two neighboring royals. "You may court any of the eligible princesses you like."

"We appreciate your generosity and your warm welcome to us, your majesty." the eldest prince Androose said smoothly.

"Indeed, we thank you." Gaston said in suit.

Kougyoku and Hakuei tensed up instantly. They both picked up their napkins, quickly dipped it in their water glasses and began frantically rubbing off their make-up. This did not escape the two French princes' sights, nor the emperor's. Hakuryuu, to the right of Judar, gave him a sideways glance to see his reaction. To be frank, he looked rather bored than pissed off or mortified like the prince had expected he'd be. Even Arajah was mildly surprised at his melancholy. Judar stood abruptly, something **very** frowned upon during the midst of an emperor's speech, and he looked Arajah right in the eye. He did a head motion towards the dining hall entrance and began walking towards it in a slight limp that went unnoticed by literally no one. Arajah looked back at the emperor for instructions and noticed her empress waving her hand in a 'shoo, get lost' manner and stood up to follow after Judar.

The Magi didn't even make it to the door before a few members of Al-Thamen stormed the room and ran up to the emperor and whispered into his ear. _"Another Magi has just teleported inside the palace, we're not sure if it's Aladdin, Yunan, or Scheherazade. They are however **alone**." _they whispered and the emperor nodded. Judar and Arajah turned around to watch the fiasco as the emperor looked clearly alarmed and apprehensive. With a wave of both of the man's hands the hooded men quickly left the dining hall and vanished from whence they came.

"Nobody move an inch." the emperor shouted, Judar decided to comply out of sheer curiosity. The two Magi who loomed by the doorway felt a pressure of rukh and turned around quickly to be met with a most bizarre sight.

"**Yunan**?!" Judar said rather loudly.

The blond Magi stood there, a cheerful expression plastered across his dainty face. "I just came to congratulate everyone!" he said softly with a cute tilt of his head. Members of Al-Thamen encircled the three Magi, poised and ready for the capture. Yunan was an elusive creature, to not try and capture him while in his rare presence was idiotic. As the evil men were about to cast a spell Yunan pulled out two golden rings from his pockets and held them up so that the emperor across the hall could see them clearly. "Wedding rings, for the newlyweds!" he said blissfully as he yanked Judar and Arajah's left hands towards them and slipped the rings on. Al-Thamen watched in both confusion and curiosity. Judar grinned, but deep inside he had a bad feeling about this.

"A very odd choice of actions, wandering Magi." the emperor said and motioned for Al-Thamen to halt a while longer. "What spurred this act upon you?"

"Sinbad's idea, blame him." Yunan said with a small chuckle. "Don't worry, you'll get them back!" he said cheerfully. Hakuryuu's ears picked up the hint long before the emperor did and made a running charge at the three, knocking a member of Al-Thamen out of his way and his hand latched onto Judar's braid. **"After your defeat." **Yunan then finished in almost a demonic voice and in a flash of light the three Magi plus the prince all vanished into thin air.

The emperor's eyes darted around madly before reality set in. "No! Find them! **Now**!"

And then, utter chaos descended upon Kou.

* * *

The Magi and Hakuryuu appeared inside of a plush room where Yunan immediately let go of them and took a step back, realizing he'd accidentally dragged a straggler along with him. When he realized that it was only the young prince, he decided it was safe enough and went ahead and teleport back to Sindria, alone. The three confused musketeers looked around, they were definitely inside a Western castle of some sort. Across the room a small voice called out to them.

"Judar."

Judar's head whipped around to see a little blonde girl with a staff, he recognized her immediately as the Reim empire's Magi. "Yo, _Hera_, **what the fuck** is going on?!" he asked rudely. Hakuryuu was by far the most confused out of the three as Arajah was used to being yanked around with little to no explanation.

"Ugh, I'm saving your life and you're calling me by that old nickname?" she made a gagging noise at him and wrinkled her nose.

Judar blinked and his expression softened considerably. "Saving my life?"

"Yunan had some important information that would turn this world upside down if you and that girl, or any two Magi, mated." she explained as she took a step closer to him. "Apparently he started spying on Al-Thamen again earlier this morning after his meeting with Sinbad." she continued as she reached just in front of him. "He picked up on parts of their wicked plan. Apparently when two Magi mate to make a _Cosmic Magi like Aladdin_, the baby absorbs both of the parents' rukh and life force, killing them both upon the day of its birth."

Judar's eyes went wide, as did Arajah's and Hakuryuu's. Judar trembled, "Al-Thamen **knew **this and still wanted to go through with it?"

"Yes." Scheherazade said solemnly. "They don't actually _care _about you, you're just a tool, a test subject to them."

"I mean I knew that, but even still...I thought I was too important to kill..." he grabbed himself by the forearms.

She took another step closer and placed her small hand on one of his golden bracelets. "**No one** is 'too important' to them. Especially now that they intent to mass-produce Cosmic Magi, you're even more disposable to them."

Judar had already struggled with the idea of Aladdin as a fourth Magi, now **this **hot garbage fest was starting? A soldier entered the room frantically. "High Priest!" he called out to her and she grimaced. "Please, follow the plan, we beg of you! Get away from them!"

"It's fine, we're not gonna hurt her you lunk!" Judar groaned out.

"It's not that, he's worried that Al-Thamen will invade if they know you came to Reim instead of Sindria." she said.

"Exactly!" the soldier shouted back.

Judar's eyebrow furrowed. "What? Why? We're wearing these rings Sinbad's mage made, we're invisible to Al-Thamen, no harm will come to your Magi, chill out!"

"Yunan dropped you off here and left in less than a few seconds, it's highly unnlikely that Al-Thamen managed to set up a Magi detection spell that quickly. So when they go to detect Yunan to find you two, they'll instead be lead to Sindria where Sinbad and his entire army is waiting to annihilate them." Scheherazade said.

"But, we're the invisible ones, they can't find us at all!" Judar retorted

"You're wrong..." she said as she walked away from him and over to her soldier. "**I **can still be sensed by that evil organization, if they lock onto me and see you here **with **me, those rings are for naught. You will be escorted to a secluded part of the castle, far away from me. My servants will take care of you just as your old empires would have." she explained as she reached the door. "And be grateful to not only Reim, but all of Sindria and the seven seas as well. We're all risking our lives to save you two."

"Lady Scheherazade!" Hakuryuu called out and the blonde girl turned her head in surprise. "Thank you!" he bowed graciously. "But what about me?"

"Fear not." she nodded her head at the prince. "Al-Thamen's spells can only detect Magi because of their enormous rukh flow and magoi pool, ordinary people are safe."

Hakuryuu took solace in her words. After the small Magi left, the trio were hastily ushered to an underground chamber that, while still luxurious, felt more like a dungeon than a castle. Since only Judar and Arajah's presence were expected, Hakuryuu had to share a room with Judar. Secretly thrilled with that oh so minor detail, he took his chance to strike up a conversation with him. The energetic prince sat next to the sulking man on the bed. Judar laid face-down in the pillow while Hakuryuu sat lotus style facing him.

"I most certainly did **not **expect this to be how today went, at all." he said boredly.

Judar's muffled reply came out in the form of a delayed reaction. "...no one did..."

"Are you okay with what's happening right now? I mean specifically about being in Reim?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"Do you...**like **Arajah in any capacity?" he asked again.

"I don't know."

"You must at least find her attractive, you already slept with her once at least." the prince frowned. Judar chose not to reply to this comment as he wasn't sure if _slept _meant sex or actual sleep, only one of which he actually did do and he didn't care to admit that yet.

"Please tell me you didn't...finish inside of her..." the prince bit his lip in fear.

"I didn't fuck her, I just fell asleep on her lap one night." Judar said in defeat and mild annoyance.

"But yesterday morning...the maid that violated you...wasn-"

"I didn't have sex with her!" Judar lifted his head out of the pillow to glare at him, a sign to shut up.

The prince backed down and didn't know how to proceed with this so-called _conversation_, which was actually a one-sided questionnaire and Judar wasn't exactly cooperating. He put his face back into the pillow and groaned. The prince reached over and grabbed the dark haired man's braid and gently played with it, oddly something Judar never seemed to mind no matter the mood he was in. He twisted the silk around his wrist and hands and squeezed it, enjoying the soft and thick feeling. He lifted it to his nose and inhaled deeply; loudly by accident. Judar lifted his head again to see the young prince with his face buried in a pile of his braided hair with his eyes closed.

"Are you _enjoying_ that?" Judar asked in what sounded akin to disgust and Hakuryuu recoiled, untangling his hair from his hands and dropping it entirely.

Face beat red and eyes averted, the blue eyed boy felt ashamed of himself. The look on his face made Judar regret saying it with the tone he had, he honestly wasn't upset by the notion, just the timing. Hakuryuu apparently had abysmal timing and Judar sighed. He shifted so that he was on his side, facing the blushing boy. Hakuryuu still refused to look at him again and instead locked his eyes on the doorknob, wishing someone would barge in and end the awkward silence. Judar observed him curiously and noticed the redness of the boy's face growing by the second.

_'Oh god, he's staring at me! My scar is so ugly, please look away!' _Hakuryuu's mind begged, but the black Magi continued his gaze.

Judar's curiosity got the better of him and he tried to force his magoi into his eyes to see Hakuryuu's rukh, but it failed. A slight moment of panic set in before he remembered the ring suppressed his magoi flow entirely. He took a deep breath and rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling, deciding on what to do or say. He wasn't informed of a mission to kidnap him and Arajah, so only god knows when Yunan or Sinbad would come for him, the war could last forever and he wanted to be a part of it. Waiting around for his _knight in shining armor _to come for him was out of the question, Judar was never one to settle down so easily and just _wait _for things to happen.

Hakuryuu finally looked back to Judar, the slight motion of his head turning was caught in Judar's peripheral vision and caused the Magi to look at him. Eyes crossed paths and the prince looked away again, as did Judar. As soon as the Magi looked back to the ceiling, Hakuryuu looked back at him again. Judar looked at him again in return. The prince looked away once more.

"Either look at me or don't." he said coldly.

He felt the prince twitch in response. "I'm sorry..." he mumbled back quietly.

Instantly Judar regretted his harsh tone, **again**.

_'Why am I like this? Oh wait, I'm **always **like this. Why am I second guessing it now?' _Judar asked himself.

Hakuryuu took a sharp breath and said, "Why are you limping today?"

Judar's ruby eyes widened as they remained fixed on the ceiling above him. Not a question he wanted to give a truthful answer to. "I plead the fifth..." he said sarcastically.

"Rough sex with someone? Riding a horse too long?" the blue eyed boy asked trying to lighten the mood.

"Why would I ride a horse?" Judar's eyebrows furrowed, eyes remained locked on the ceiling.

"Ignored the first part I see..." Hakuryuu said almost teasingly.

Judar chuckled almost menacingly. "Oh...if only you knew the truth..."

The boy scooted closer and hovered a fair distance above him and smirked, grateful that the mood was finally shifting. "Now you **have **to tell me!"

"Nope!" Judar grinned. "It's my secret to keep from you!"

"At least tell me who it was with!" he pleaded, smirk remained firmly in place.

Judar's grin spread as he shook his head. "The whole secret is **who**, not **how**!" he teased.

Hakuryuu squinted his eyes down at him, "Let me have three guesses, if I get it right, tell me?"

Judar considered it, then realized the chances of him getting it right were astronomical. "Ok, fine. Go!"

"I already know it's not Arajah, so...it's either Hakuei or Kougyoku, but which am I picking for my first choice?" he pondered out loud.

"Oh it's no fun that way, I'll give you this one for free. It was neither of them, now make your first pick." Judar laughed.

"A Kou palace servant?" the prince finally said.

"Vague, but I'll accept it. No, guess again." Judar was beginning to like this game.

"Someone of Kou royalty?" he asked again, assured of his answer this time.

"Again, vague, but I'll accept it. No, last guess."

"Where the fuck did you disappear to for **only an hour** yesterday that you got out of the castle perimeters, had intense rough sex, and came back so pissed off that the whole palace shook like an earthquake and your black rukh wilted the damn grass?" Hakuryuu whined.

Judar's smile dropped and looked up at him with wondrous eyes. "My rukh was so volatile it killed the **grass**?"

Hakuryuu regretted his question. "Yeah...you felt like Satan himself had risen from the depths hell and was unleashing the fucking apocalypse upon us. The servants cried in fear, Al-Thamen was ready to restrain you, and the whole palace snowed... **on the inside! **When I saw you this morning you looked like one of the demon chicks from the old testament bible, the ones that crawl in through your window and make weird noises and can dislocate their limbs." Again, he regretted his choice of words, thankfully Judar didn't looked offended. Instead, he looked more amazed or mesmerized than mad. Both remained silent for almost a whole minute.

The memory of crying out Hakuryuu's name during his orgasm played in his head a few times.

"You must have _**really **_gotten inside my head then..." was all Judar said finally.

"**I **did that to you?" his eyes filled with sorrow. The prince slid off the bed and started putting his shoes on. "I'm sorry, I'll just leave and tell Kou that Yunan dropped me off somewhere near Sindria and-"

A hand caught his wrist and yanked him back onto the bed. Judar held him in his arms on top of himself on the bed. "Don't leave me alone."

"You have Arajah though, and obviously I cause you too much distress..." Hakuryuu said sadly as he lifted himself off of his beautiful trainwreck of a love interest. Judar steadied him and prevented him from leaving the bed, now Hakuryuu was on his hands and knees with Judar between his legs.

"I barely know her, I just met her yesterday morning. She's not a substitute for a _real_ friend." Judar said sadly.

"I thought you told me last year that you'd never be friends with the likes of me or Kougyoku and Hakuei?"

Judar rolled his eyes. "Don't you know me by now? That's my way of saying '**yes you dumbasses, we're friends'**!" he growled up at him in annoyance for making him admit such an embarrassing thing. The prince couldn't hide his childlike smile and laughed down at him openly.

"You're a lot softer on the inside than you pretend to be, aren't you?" the prince asked and Judar blushed in response.

An impulse that he didn't understand why the hell he didn't try to control took over him. He put his arms on the back of his neck and head and pulled him down close, the prince did not resist. "Do you want to find out exactly how soft I am on the _inside_?" the Magi whispered lustfully.

Hakuryuu didn't need another hint, he barely needed the first one. He made the move and forced his lips down upon the Magi's and without the slightest hesitation Judar wrapped his arms all the way around him. Hakuryuu's hands went to his hair as he elbows kept him from smothering the man beneath him. Eagerly, Judar parted his lips and granted permission long before the prince ever even asked for it, but he took it gladly. Heat was building in Hakuryuu's lower region as their tongues touched gently over and over again. This moment he daydreamed about for over three years, waiting for the dangerous animal to give a signal or hint. As their passionate kissing grew more rapid Hakuryuu rolled onto his back and took Judar with him, placing him on top. A series of noises occured and they assumed it was the bed creaking beneath the sudden shift in weight.

Judar broke the kiss and looked down at the prince whose legs were now wrapped around his waist. "Wh-what are you doing?" Judar asked with a shaky breath.

"I've always wanted you on top." the prince said affectionately.

"I've never been with a man before, I don't know what I'm doing entirely." Judar said through a pant of hot breath.

"Don't lie to me, the **only **way you could be limping that badly after sex is if either you were on bottom with another man or you made love to a woman on your lap on a horse galloping at full speed!" the prince said and Judar let out an ugly snort of amusement at the mental image. Luckily Hakuryuu found it cute rather than unattractive.

"I never got penetrated, but he did do me like two women do it, but with our clothes on." Judar confessed with a deep blush.

"You got **scissored **by another man?" Hakuryuu asked bewildered and morbidly fascinated with the idea.

"Ehhh close enough..." Judar said shyly, a side of him that the prince absolutely never saw before today.

"I **have **to know now, who was it?" he asked with an impatient tone.

Judar bit his lower lip and gave him a look worthy of a kitten. "_Sinbad_..."

**"The king of Sindria!?**" Hakuryuu nearly screamed. "Don't you hate that guy? I thought you wanted to **kill **him!"

"I thought I did too, until last night." Judar confessed and it worried the prince, he almost sounded **fond **of him right now.

"So why did you come back so pissed off?" he asked with those curiously blue eyes that Judar secretly adored.

"Shit, you're gonna find out no matter what and you...deserve to know at this point..." Judar sat up off of him, Hakuryuu was sad that the mood was gone. "When I was...he tried to make me...ugh..." Judar placed his hands over his face in both frustration and embarrassment. "When we were close to...orgasm... he tried to make me say his name, but I refused."

It dawned on the blue prince. "And you moaned **my name** instead?" he asked hopefully.

"Not exactly." Judar was now redder than ever, redder than when Arajah gave him her ten finger death bath. "I more like...screamed it at the top of my fucking lungs. Half of Sindria probably thought you were storming the damn shorelines. I'm pretty sure I heard like five of his generals do a full Djinn equip in the background."

Hakuryuu went comically red and his eyes wide. He wanted to fall over, unsure if it was joy or sheer embarrassment. "Seriously!?"

"Yeah, and it broke Sinbad's heart." Judar felt more than _a little guilty _over it now that he said the words out loud. "I didn't really mean to do that to him."

"It'd break my heart too." Hakuryuu agreed.

"I'm gonna explain it to him when I see him again..." Judar looked down sadly.

"It's okay, Yunan filled me in a bit." came a disturbing voice from the doorway. Both of them slowly turned their heads to the side to see the **bastard** himself looked down at them with a smirk. "You may have gotten him to say your name Hakuryuu, but **I **got him to scream in the first place." he said proudly. "And it was six generals Djinn equipping, not five." Sinbad said before exiting the room.

Judar let out an agonizing, and overly feminine, scream.


End file.
